The Believer's Authority

There is a sentence in Luke's Gospel that has been preached, sung, printed on wall plaques and shouted at conferences for more than a century. The seventy disciples had come back from their mission, glad and a little astonished, and Jesus said to them:

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19)

Few verses about spiritual warfare are better known. Few are more often lifted out of their setting. Some read it as a blank cheque: a believer who knows the right words can command anything, bind anything, claim anything. Others are so wary of that abuse that they never read the verse as though it meant anything at all.

This paper is an attempt to read it, and the passages around it, carefully. The question is simple to ask and important to answer: what authority does a Christian actually have over the devil and his works, where does it come from, what is it for, and where does it stop?

Why this matters

It matters first because the enemy is real. The New Testament does not treat Satan as a symbol for human evil. Jesus spoke to him, cast out his servants, and said He had come to overthrow his kingdom. A believer who does not know what Christ has given him will live as if the devil had the last word.

It matters second because this subject has been badly abused. In the name of "authority", Christians have been taught to interview demons, to curse their enemies, to order angels about, to name and "bind" the spirits over cities, and to declare health and money into being. Each of those practices claims to rest on Scripture. Each needs to be weighed against it.

And it matters third because authority is not finally about the devil at all. It is about Jesus Christ, to whom "All power is given … in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28:18), and about the work He has given His church to do.

What this paper is

This is a study, not a manual. It argues from the King James Bible first. Where the early church left a record of how Christians understood these texts, that record is quoted from the sources. Where the modern teaching on "the authority of the believer" has a history, the history is told with its sources. And where Christians have weighed these questions together, as they did at the Lausanne consultation in Nairobi in 2000, their conclusions are quoted as they wrote them.

It is a companion to the other warfare papers on this site. Those deal with prayer, fasting, discernment and the practice of deliverance. This one keeps to a single theme: the believer's authority in Christ, from the text.

A word about me

When real life hit — a lost job, a pregnant wife, constant fights — I went looking for peace anywhere I could find it. New Age, crystals, astral projection, tarot, angel numbers. None of it held. So I swung back hard to religion, said the rosary every night, and still felt nothing.

Eventually I gave up and called myself an atheist. I decided to read the Bible for one reason: to disprove it, so I'd have an excuse to stop going to church for good. It did the opposite. I came to faith in 2022, and my wife came to faith a month later. The rest of the story is at kylelauriano.com/about.

I mention it because much of what passes for "warfare" today looks uncomfortably like New Age practice: the right words, the right ritual, the right technique, the secret names. The Bible is different. It offers not a technique but a Person.

A note on Scripture: every verse in this paper is quoted from the King James Bible. You can read it free in the 1611 Reader at kylelauriano.com/library, and a KJV with Strong's Concordance is the best study tool most believers will ever need.

This part matters because the believer's authority has no existence of its own. It is borrowed. If we start with ourselves, with our words, our faith or our techniques, we will build on sand. Scripture starts with Christ.

The authority of Jesus in His ministry

The first thing the crowds noticed about Jesus was His authority. In the synagogue at Capernaum a man with an unclean spirit cried out, and Jesus answered with two short commands: "Hold thy peace, and come out of him" (Mark 1:25). The people were astonished, not at a long ritual, but at its absence:

“And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.” (Mark 1:27)

Luke tells the same scene and adds a second word: "for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out" (Luke 4:36). Matthew sums up an evening of such ministry in five words: "he cast out the spirits with his word" (Matthew 8:16).

Three things stand out in these accounts.

First, Jesus spoke briefly. There were no incantations, no lists of names, no long negotiations. A word was enough.

Second, Jesus did not let the spirits speak. "And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him" (Mark 1:34). Luke records the same: "And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ" (Luke 4:41). Even when what they said was true, He did not want their testimony.

Third, Jesus did all this as the anointed Man. Peter, preaching to Cornelius, described the ministry this way: "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him" (Acts 10:38). Jesus Himself said, "But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you" (Matthew 12:28). His authority over demons was a sign that the kingdom had arrived.

The strong man bound

In the same passage Jesus told a short parable that explains what He was doing:

“Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.” (Matthew 12:29)

The strong man is Satan. The goods are the people he holds. And the One who binds him is Christ. This verse is often used today as a pattern for believers to "bind the strong man" over a city or a family before they pray. But that is not what Jesus said. He was explaining His own ministry: every deliverance was proof that a Stronger One had come into the house. The verse tells us who the victor is before it tells us anything about method.

The cross: the decisive defeat

What Jesus began in Galilee He finished at Calvary. The New Testament describes the cross as the place where the devil's power was broken.

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)

Paul writes that God has forgiven us "all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:13-15). The picture is a Roman triumph, a conquered enemy led in public procession. John states the purpose plainly: "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). Jesus spoke of His coming death the same way: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (John 12:31).

Notice how Colossians joins the two halves. The powers are disarmed in the same act by which our sins are forgiven. The devil's chief weapon against a human being is guilt, the "handwriting … that was against us". When Christ took that away, He took away the accuser's case. This is why the believer's authority can never be separated from the gospel. A Christian does not stand against Satan on the strength of his own record. He stands on the cross.

The risen Lord's commission

After the resurrection, Jesus met His disciples on a mountain in Galilee and said:

“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

The order matters. First comes His authority, which is total: heaven and earth. Then comes "therefore". The church's mission rests on His authority, not ours. And then comes the promise of His presence. Whatever authority a believer has, he has because the One who holds all of it goes with him.

Paul says the same thing in his great hymn to Christ: "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11). "Things under the earth" leaves nothing out. There is no power, however dark, that is not under that name.

The first promise

Long before Bethlehem, God had promised this victory. To the serpent in the garden He said:

“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.” (Genesis 3:15)

Christians from the earliest centuries have read this as the first gospel promise: the Seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head, though He would be wounded in the doing of it. Paul echoes it at the end of Romans, and in doing so he extends it to the church: "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly" (Romans 16:20). The crushing is God's work. The feet are ours. That is the shape of the believer's authority in one verse.

This part matters because Luke 9 and 10 are the main texts on which every teaching about the believer's authority is built. If we read them in their setting, much confusion clears.

The Twelve and the Seventy

Luke records two missions. First the Twelve: "Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick" (Luke 9:1-2). Mark tells the same mission and gives its result: "And they went out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them" (Mark 6:12-13).

Then the Seventy: "After these things the LORD appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come" (Luke 10:1). They were sent with the same message, "The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you" (Luke 10:9), and they came back rejoicing.

“And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:17-20)

Two words for "power"

The King James uses the word "power" twice in verse 19, but the Greek has two different words. The first, "I give unto you power", is exousia. Strong's Concordance (G1849) gives its range as privilege, capacity, freedom, mastery, and "delegated influence", and lists the King James renderings "authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength".¹ The second, "over all the power of the enemy", is dynamis (G1411), which Strong's defines as force or miraculous power, rendered "ability", "might", "mighty deed", "miracle" and "power".²

The distinction is worth having, though it should not be pushed too hard (Luke 9:1 puts both words side by side: "power and authority"). What it shows is this. The enemy has dynamis, real force. The disciples are given exousia, a right that has been handed to them by someone with the authority to hand it over. A police officer is not stronger than a truck, but when he raises his hand under the law, the truck stops. The officer's power lies in the one who appointed him.

That is the first lesson of Luke 10:19. The believer's authority is delegated. It is "I give unto you". It is exercised "through thy name". It belongs to the Giver.

Serpents and scorpions

What does it mean to "tread on serpents and scorpions"? The phrase recalls Psalm 91: "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet" (Psalm 91:13). It also recalls Genesis 3:15 and the serpent's crushed head. In the setting of Luke 10, where the very next words are "and over all the power of the enemy", the serpents and scorpions stand chiefly for the devil's servants. The disciples had just seen demons obey them.

Two warnings belong here, and both come from Scripture itself.

The first is that Psalm 91 was quoted once before in the Gospels, by the devil. On the pinnacle of the temple he said to Jesus, "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee", and Jesus answered, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (Matthew 4:6-7). A promise of protection is not an invitation to put God to the test. The believer who handles snakes for show, or walks into danger to prove his authority, is doing what Jesus refused to do.

The second is that Scripture gives us an example of the promise kept, and it is not a stunt. On Malta, Paul was gathering sticks for a fire when "there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand", and "he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm" (Acts 28:3-5). Paul did not seek the snake. He was serving others in a cold rain after a shipwreck. God kept His word in the ordinary course of obedience.

The same promise in Mark

At the end of Mark's Gospel, the risen Lord gives a related promise:

“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (Mark 16:17-18)

That passage, Mark 16:9–20, stands in the 1611 and in the Received Text. Many modern versions bracket it or set it apart with a note. You can see that difference, and every other place where the 1611 and the modern Critical Text part ways, at kylelauriano.com/library/changes.

Notice that the signs "follow" believers. They follow the preaching of the gospel, which is the subject of the verse before: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). The signs are not the mission. They accompany it.

"Rejoice not"

The most important words in Luke 10:17–20 may be the last ones. Jesus did not deny what the seventy had seen. He confirmed it and widened it: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." But then He turned their joy in a different direction: "Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20).

Power over demons is a gift. Salvation is the gift. A ministry that makes deliverance its main joy has already drifted from the Lord's priorities. And Luke immediately shows us where Jesus' own joy lay: "In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes" (Luke 10:21). He rejoiced in the Father's revealing grace, not in the subjection of spirits.

When the disciples could not

The Gospels are honest enough to record failure. A father brought his son to the disciples while Jesus was on the mountain, and they could not help: "and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not" (Mark 9:18). When Jesus had set the boy free, they asked Him privately what had gone wrong.

“And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” (Mark 9:28-29)

Matthew's account adds that Jesus first named their unbelief: "Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matthew 17:20-21). (Both "and fasting" in Mark 9:29 and the whole of Matthew 17:21 stand in the 1611; many modern versions omit them. See kylelauriano.com/library/changes.)

These men had been given authority over "all devils" only a short time before. Yet here they could not. Authority, then, is not a switch that works whenever it is flipped. It is exercised in living dependence on God, by faith, sustained by prayer. The disciples had perhaps begun to treat their earlier success as something they now possessed. Jesus sent them back to the source.

A sobering word

One more text belongs in this part, because it guards against the most dangerous error of all. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said:

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:22-23)

Casting out devils is not proof of salvation. A man can use the name of Jesus and not know Him. The question at the last day will not be "Did you exercise authority?" but "Did I know you?" That is why "rejoice not" comes first.

This part matters because Ephesians is where Paul explains why a believer has authority at all. Luke shows the authority given. Ephesians shows where the believer stands to use it.

The setting

Ephesus was a city soaked in the spiritual. It was the home of the temple of Artemis, and Acts records that when the gospel took hold there, new believers who "used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men" (Acts 19:19). Clinton E. Arnold's study Ephesians, Power and Magic (1989) argued at length that this setting shaped Paul's letter: its readers had lived in fear of hostile spiritual powers, and Paul wrote to show them that Christ was over all of them.³ Whether or not one follows every step of that argument, the letter's language bears it out. No other letter of Paul's speaks so often of "principalities and powers".

Christ far above

Paul's first prayer for the Ephesians is that they would understand a power they already had access to:

“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” (Ephesians 1:18-23)

Read that slowly. The power "to us-ward who believe" is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. That power set Him "far above" every rank of spiritual being, and "every name that is named". And God gave Him, so exalted, "to be the head over all things to the church". The church is not a separate force fighting alongside Christ. It is His body, joined to the Head who is already above every enemy.

Notice also what Paul does not do. He does not pray that the Ephesians would gain power. He prays that they would know what they already have. The problem of a weak Christian is seldom a lack of power. It is a lack of sight.

Raised and seated together

In the next chapter Paul carries the thought from Christ to the believer:

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:” (Ephesians 2:1-6)

Here is the believer's position. Once he walked "according to the prince of the power of the air". Now he has been "quickened … together with Christ", "raised … up together", and made to "sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus". The verbs are past tense. This is not a status to be achieved by prayer or fasting. It has been done. And the words that follow make sure we know who did it: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The believer's authority, then, is not a spiritual rank earned by the mature. Every person who is in Christ is seated with Him. The newest convert shares the position of the oldest saint. What differs is how well each one understands it and walks in it.

The history of a phrase

The phrase "the authority of the believer" has its own history, and it is worth knowing because it explains how sound teaching and unsound teaching came to travel under the same name.

In 1932 John A. MacMillan (1873–1956), a Canadian Presbyterian who later became associate editor of the Christian and Missionary Alliance's Alliance Weekly, wrote a series of articles titled "The Authority of the Believer". Paul L. King, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on MacMillan at Oral Roberts University, describes the series as a fuller exposition of the believer's position in Christ according to Ephesians 1 and 2, drawing on the "throne life" teaching of A. B. Simpson and Jessie Penn-Lewis. MacMillan spoke of the believer's "throne union" with "the Ascended Lord" and taught that the obedient believer who stood on that position could resist the powers of darkness by faith and prayer.⁴

MacMillan's articles were later published in book form and distributed widely. In 1967 Kenneth E. Hagin published a booklet under almost the same title, Authority of the Believer. King reports that Hagin quoted MacMillan so extensively that he was accused of plagiarism, and that the 1984 edition, retitled The Believer's Authority, acknowledged the debt: "I came across a wonderful pamphlet, entitled The Authority of the Believer by John A. MacMillan".⁵ Through Hagin, the teaching spread across the charismatic and Word of Faith movements. King notes that later teachers expanded it in directions MacMillan would not have approved, and he names "little gods" and "name it and claim it" as examples.⁵

That history explains a great deal. The core of the teaching, that believers are seated with Christ above the powers and may resist them in His name, is plainly in Ephesians. But once "authority" was joined to the Word of Faith idea that a believer's spoken words create reality, it became something else: a doctrine of declarations, in which the Christian commands health, wealth and success into being. That is not Ephesians. It is not even MacMillan. Part 6 returns to it.

What the seated believer is for

If Ephesians 1 and 2 tell us where the believer sits, Ephesians 3 tells us why. Paul says that through the gospel God intends "That now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God" (Ephesians 3:10). The church's very existence, Jew and Gentile reconciled in one body, is a display to the powers that their rule is over.

And when Paul prays a second time for the Ephesians, he does not pray that they would confront demons. He prays "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:16-19).

The Lausanne consultation on spiritual conflict, meeting in Nairobi in August 2000, made the same observation in its report: Paul prays that the Ephesians would be filled with God's power "not to confront demons" but "to know the depths of God's love".⁶ The believer's authority is real. But the goal of the whole letter is not a church obsessed with the enemy. It is a church rooted in love.

This part matters because the New Testament's commands about the devil are surprisingly few, and they are almost all about standing and resisting. If a believer's warfare does not look like that, it has moved away from the text.

The verbs of Ephesians 6

Paul's best-known passage on spiritual conflict is built on a handful of verbs.

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:10-13)

Be strong — but "in the Lord, and in the power of his might". The strength is His. Put on — the armour is "of God". It is His, given to us. Stand — three times in four verses. Withstand — the Greek word is anthistemi, which Strong's (G436) defines as "to stand against, i.e. oppose", rendered "resist" and "withstand".⁷

That last word links Paul to James and Peter. James writes, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). Peter writes, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world" (1 Peter 5:8-9). All three apostles use the same word. None of them tells the believer to go looking for the devil. All of them tell him to stand his ground when the devil comes.

This is the main form the believer's authority takes in the epistles. It is not a campaign. It is a refusal to give ground.

Giving no place

Paul names how ground is lost. In the middle of his teaching on everyday holiness he says, "Neither give place to the devil" (Ephesians 4:27). The word "place" is topos (Strong's G5117), an ordinary word for a spot, a room, an opportunity.⁸ The context is equally ordinary: lying, anger left overnight, stealing, foul speech, bitterness.

“Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” (Ephesians 4:25-28)

This is sobering and freeing at once. It is sobering because it means that a believer's authority can be weakened not by a lack of technique but by unconfessed sin and unresolved anger. It is freeing because the remedy is not exotic. It is repentance, honesty, reconciliation and work. The believer who wants to stand against the devil should begin with the sun going down on his wrath.

No armour for the back

John Bunyan understood this. In The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), Christian meets the fiend Apollyon in the Valley of Humiliation, and his first thought is to run. Then he remembers something about his armour: "he considered again that he had no armour for his back; and therefore thought that to turn the back to him might give him the greater advantage with ease to pierce him with his darts. Therefore he resolved to venture and stand his ground".⁹

The armour of Ephesians 6 covers the front. There is nothing for retreat. The believer's safety lies in facing the enemy in the strength of Christ, not in pretending he is not there.

Bunyan's account of the fight that follows is worth knowing too. Christian is wounded and thrown down, and his sword flies out of his hand. Then, as Apollyon prepares the last blow, "Christian nimbly stretched out his hand for his sword, and caught it", quoting Micah, and drove the enemy back. Bunyan's marginal reference for Apollyon's flight is James 4:7.¹⁰ The sword is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17), and the words Christian speaks are Scripture's own: "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise" (Micah 7:8), and "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37).

That is a fair picture of how the believer's authority works under attack. Not a clever formula. A fallen man reaching for the word of God and standing on it.

The Lord rebuke thee

Two passages in the New Testament set a striking limit on how even the strongest servants of God speak to the devil.

“Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” (Jude 1:9)

Peter makes the same point about false teachers who "are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord" (2 Peter 2:10-11).

Michael is "the archangel", the chief of God's angels. If anyone could have rebuked Satan in his own name, Michael could. Instead he appealed to the Lord. The believer's authority is never his own. Its characteristic form is not mockery, boasting or abuse of the devil, but an appeal to the One who has defeated him. Much modern warfare language, with its taunting and shouting and long speeches to Satan, sits uncomfortably beside Jude 9.

The sword and the prayer

Paul names only one offensive weapon in Ephesians 6: "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Ephesians 6:17). Jesus used it in the wilderness. Three times He answered the devil with "It is written", and the third time He added a command: "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10). Even His command was wrapped in Scripture.

Then Paul ends, not with a weapon, but with prayer: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18). And notice what Paul asks the Ephesians to pray for him:

“And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:19-20)

The great apostle of spiritual warfare, writing from prison, does not ask the church to bind the spirits over Rome. He asks them to pray that he will preach the gospel boldly. The armour is put on in order to stand, and the standing is in order to proclaim. The believer's authority serves the mission.

One little word

Martin Luther, who believed in the devil's reality as firmly as anyone in church history, put this in a hymn. His Ein feste Burg (written between 1527 and 1529) was rendered into English by Frederic Henry Hedge in 1852 as "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God". Its third stanza reads:

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.¹¹

"One little word." Not a long ritual. Not a secret name. The word of God, and finally the Word of God, Christ Himself, whom the next stanza calls "That Word above all earthly powers".

This part matters because the believer's authority is exercised "in the name of Jesus", and that phrase is easily misunderstood. In the ancient world, as in some churches today, a powerful name could be treated as a spell. The New Testament shows something very different.

What "in the name" means

When Peter healed the lame man at the temple gate, he said, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk" (Acts 3:6). When the crowd gathered, he explained how it had happened:

“And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.” (Acts 3:16)

Peter is careful. It was "his name", but "through faith in his name". And even the faith was "by him". The name is not a sound with power in it. It stands for the Person, and it works through trust in the Person. To act "in the name" of Jesus is to act as His representative, on His authority, by His will, trusting Him for the result.

Jesus used the same phrase for prayer: "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13), and "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you" (John 16:23). Prayer in Jesus' name is addressed to the Father, through the Son, for the Father's glory. The name is not a password tacked to the end of a request. It is the ground on which we come.

Paul and the spirit of divination

Acts gives one detailed example of an apostle commanding an evil spirit, and it repays close reading.

“And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.” (Acts 16:16-18)

Several things are worth noticing.

Paul did not go looking for this spirit. The girl followed him, and he was on his way to prayer.

Paul did not act at once. "This did she many days." Authority does not require a believer to confront every manifestation the moment it appears.

What the spirit said was true. These men were servants of the most high God. But Paul did not want a demon's endorsement, just as Jesus had silenced the demons who called Him the Christ.

Paul did not converse with the spirit. He did not ask its name, its rank, or how it had entered. He spoke one sentence, to the spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, and it left "the same hour".

And the result was not applause. The girl's masters dragged Paul and Silas to the magistrates, and they were beaten and jailed (Acts 16:19-24). Exercising authority over the enemy brought suffering, not comfort. That too is part of the pattern.

The sons of Sceva

Three chapters later, in Ephesus, Acts records the opposite case.

“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. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? 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. 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.” (Acts 19:13-17)

The seven sons had the right words. They even had the right name. What they did not have was a relationship with the One whose name they used. They treated "Jesus whom Paul preacheth" as one more powerful name in their stock of spells. The result was a humiliation so public that it brought fear on the whole city, "and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified".

This is the plainest lesson in the New Testament about the difference between authority and magic. Magic says: say the right words and the power must work. Authority says: you belong to Christ, and He acts through you. The name of Jesus is not a key anyone can turn.

"Not by incantations"

The early church understood this. In the middle of the second century Justin Martyr, writing to the Roman Senate, appealed to what anyone could see in the city:

For numberless demoniacs throughout the whole world, and in your city, many of our Christian men exorcising them in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, have healed and do heal, rendering helpless and driving the possessing devils out of the men, though they could not be cured by all the other exorcists, and those who used incantations and drugs.¹²

Notice how Justin names the Lord: "Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate". The name was not a magic word. It was the name of a real Man who had died and risen in history, and it was spoken by people who believed in Him.

A century later Origen, answering the pagan critic Celsus, who accused Christians of using sorcery, drew the line even more sharply:

For it is not by incantations that Christians seem to prevail (over evil spirits), but by the name of Jesus, accompanied by the announcement of the narratives which relate to Him; for the repetition of these has frequently been the means of driving demons out of men, especially when those who repeated them did so in a sound and genuinely believing spirit.¹³

"Not by incantations … but by the name of Jesus, accompanied by the announcement of the narratives which relate to Him." In other words, the early Christians drove out demons by naming Christ and telling His story: His birth, His death, His resurrection. The gospel itself was the weapon. (Origen goes on to say that the name had sometimes worked even when spoken by bad men, and cites Matthew 7:22. That only confirms the point of Part 2: success in deliverance is not a certificate of salvation.)

Jesus and the name of Legion

Someone may point out that Jesus once asked a demon its name. In the country of the Gadarenes, He asked the man possessed, "What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many" (Mark 5:9). Is this a pattern for believers to interview demons, to learn their names, ranks and rights?

The answer is no, for three reasons. First, this is a single question in a single account, and it is never repeated by the apostles; in Acts they command, they do not question. Second, Jesus is the Lord of the spirits in a way no believer is. What He chose to do in His own authority is not automatically a method for us; He also walked on water. Third, the rest of the Gospels show Jesus silencing demons, not drawing them out. The overwhelming pattern is "Hold thy peace, and come out of him" (Mark 1:25).

The Lausanne report on spiritual conflict made a related point about the modern stress on discovering the names of spirits. It warned that "The emphasis on discerning and naming demons before we can have power over them is approaching a form of Christian animism or Christian magic. The idea of needing the names to have power over spirits is found in magical thinking around the world."¹⁴

So this paper does not teach conversation with demons. Not to gather information, not to learn names, not to negotiate. Jesus did not take their testimony, Paul did not ask their names, and the devil is "a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). Nothing a demon says is worth hearing.

Angels are sent, not summoned

A second area where "authority" has been stretched is the teaching that believers can command angels: dispatch them, assign them, "loose" them on errands. Scripture does teach that angels serve God's people: "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Hebrews 1:14). And it gives us vivid pictures of their protection: "The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them" (Psalm 34:7).

But notice the verb in Hebrews 1:14: angels are "sent forth". By whom? Not by us. When Elisha's servant was terrified by the Syrian army, Elisha did not command the angelic host. He prayed to God: "LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha" (2 Kings 6:17). When Jesus Himself was arrested, He said, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:53). Even the Son spoke of praying to the Father for angels.

And Scripture forbids the opposite error, of making angels objects of devotion. Paul warns against "worshipping of angels" (Colossians 2:18). When John fell at an angel's feet, the angel said, "See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God" (Revelation 22:9).

So this paper does not teach commanding, summoning or praying to angels. We pray to the Father in the name of the Son, and He sends His servants as He wills.

Bless, and curse not

A third distortion is the idea that a believer's authority includes the power to curse: to "return" curses to the sender, to declare judgments on enemies, to send "fire" on those who oppose us. The New Testament could hardly be plainer.

“Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” (Luke 6:28)

“Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.” (Romans 12:14)

When James and John wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan village, Jesus "turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of" (Luke 9:55). There is no "sevenfold return" of curses in the teaching of Christ. The believer's authority is over the devil, not over other people, and its spirit is the spirit of the cross.

Nor does a believer need to fear curses spoken against him. "As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come" (Proverbs 26:2). And above all, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). The one who is in Christ is under blessing, not under any man's curse.

This part matters because every true authority has limits. A soldier who forgets the limits of his orders becomes a danger to his own side. The New Testament marks the edges of the believer's authority as clearly as its centre.

Under the Father's will

The first limit is the will of God. John writes: "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him" (1 John 5:14-15). Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10), and He prayed that way Himself in Gethsemane.

Authority in Christ is not the power to have our own way. It is the right to act on His behalf, within His will. A believer cannot command what God has not willed, any more than an ambassador can declare war on his own.

The thorn that stayed

The clearest example in Scripture is Paul's thorn.

“And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)

Paul calls it "the messenger of Satan". If any man had authority over Satan's messengers, Paul did. Yet he did not bind it, rebuke it, or declare it gone. He "besought the Lord", three times. And the Lord said no, and gave him grace instead. The thorn stayed, and Paul learned to glory in weakness.

A teaching on authority that cannot account for 2 Corinthians 12 is not a biblical teaching. Sometimes God's answer to the enemy's buffeting is not removal but grace.

When Satan hindered

The same apostle wrote to the Thessalonians, "Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us" (1 Thessalonians 2:18). The Lausanne report draws the obvious conclusion: "Even when it was clear that Satan had hindered Paul from coming to Thessalonica (1 Thess. 2:18) he does not engage in or advocate coming against Satan in spiritual warfare."¹⁵ Paul did what he could: he sent Timothy, he wrote a letter, and he prayed "night and day" (1 Thessalonians 3:10). He did not launch a campaign against the spirit that blocked his road.

Daniel and the prince of Persia

The text most often used to support "strategic-level" warfare against the spirits over nations is Daniel 10. Daniel had been mourning and fasting for three weeks when an angel came to him and explained the delay:

“Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.” (Daniel 10:12-13)

The passage does teach that there are spiritual powers connected with nations, and that there is conflict in the heavenly realm. It also teaches that prayer matters: "thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words."

But look at what Daniel did. He prayed to God. He humbled himself. He did not know about the prince of Persia until the angel told him. He never addressed it, never named it, never bound it. The fighting was done by Michael and the angel, not by Daniel. The Lausanne report describes Daniel's role as "largely defined as that of an observer of how God accomplishes his purpose on the broad screen of history", and adds that "there is no evidence in the New Testament that a concern about territorial spirits ever figured in the missionary strategy of the early Christians."¹⁶

Notice, too, that "one and twenty days" is a report of how long the angel was withstood. It is not a formula. Scripture never teaches that a fast must last twenty-one days to work, or that twenty-one is a number with power in it.

Territorial spirits and spiritual mapping

This matters because from the 1980s on a whole method grew up around these texts. The term "spiritual mapping" was coined by George Otis, and C. Peter Wagner and others promoted the practice under the name "strategic-level spiritual warfare".¹⁷ The Lausanne report summarises the method in Wagner's terms: praying against territorial spirits, seeking to "map" their strategies over given places "by discerning their names and what they use to keep people in bondage and then to bind them in turn so that evangelism may go unhindered".¹⁸

The Lausanne report also records the critique of Chuck Lowe, who concluded: "The evidence cited for SLSW is unconvincing. Scripture provides no support, animism is an unreliable guide, and the 'case study' evidence is anecdotal rather than verified."¹⁹ And the consultation's own statement says this:

While it is possible that Satan manifests himself more strongly in certain places than in others, and that some spirits seem to be tied to certain locations, we agreed there seems to be little biblical warrant for a number of the teachings and practices associated with some forms of spiritual conflict which focus on territorial spirits.²⁰

The Bible's own pattern is clear enough. When Paul came to Ephesus, a city given over to Artemis and magic, he did not map its spirits. He preached in the synagogue and then "disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus" for two years, "so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 19:9-10). The spiritual change in Ephesus came through the preaching of the word and the repentance of believers, who brought out their books and burned them. "So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed" (Acts 19:20).

So this paper does not teach territorial-spirit mapping as a method. Pray for your city, by all means. Pray for its rulers (1 Timothy 2:1-2), its churches and its lost. But pray to God, and then go and preach.

No guarantees, no declarations

The Lausanne statement contains one sentence that every teacher on this subject should keep in front of him:

We call for discernment concerning magical uses of Christian terms and caution practitioners to avoid making spiritual conflict into Christian magic. Any suggestion that a particular technique or method in spiritual conflict ministry ensures success is a magical, sub-Christian understanding of God's workings.²¹

This is why the believer's authority must never be turned into a doctrine of declarations. It is common to hear that a Christian can speak health, wealth or success into being, because "death and life are in the power of the tongue", or because Jesus said that whoever "shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed … shall have whatsoever he saith" (Mark 11:23). But Jesus' words about the mountain are about faith in God (the verse before is "Have faith in God", Mark 11:22), and the next verse speaks of prayer: "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them" (Mark 11:24). The power is in God, who answers prayer according to His will, not in the believer's words.

The verses most used for prosperity declarations do not bear the weight. "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth" (3 John 1:2) is John's greeting to a friend, the ordinary good wish of an ancient letter. It is not a promise that every believer will be rich, and it is certainly not a formula. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above" (James 1:17): the gifts come down from the Father, not up from our declarations.

The apostles who had the most authority in the New Testament were often hungry, poor and in chains. Paul wrote, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content" (Philippians 4:11). Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none" (Acts 3:6). If authority meant wealth, the apostles did not have it.

So this paper does not teach declarations of prosperity, guaranteed breakthroughs, or words that work by being said. The believer prays, trusts, obeys, and leaves the outcome with God.

A believer is not owned by the enemy

One more limit concerns the enemy's reach, not ours. Can a born-again Christian be possessed by a demon? Some modern teachers say yes, and some build whole ministries on casting demons out of believers. The Lausanne consultation, which heard testimonies from every continent, admitted it could not resolve the tension, but it stated what the text shows: "there is no direct evidence that demons need to be cast out of believers."²²

This ministry's position is plain. A believer can be tempted, harassed, oppressed and attacked; Peter was sifted and Paul was buffeted. But a believer belongs to Christ. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). John writes, "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not" (1 John 5:18), and "greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). Attack, yes. Ownership, no.

This is not a small point for a paper on authority. The believer resists the devil from inside the fortress, not as a hostage. The Father "hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son" (Colossians 1:13).

A word on Revelation 20

Revelation 20 speaks of an angel who "laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years … that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season" (Revelation 20:2-3).

I read Revelation 20 literally. I believe Satan was bound when the temple fell in AD 70; that the thousand years were the medieval age, about 500 to 1500; and that the little season began about 1500 and is the age we live in now. I set no dates. This is my conviction; weigh it for yourself. The case is set out in full at kylelauriano.com/research/little-season.

Whatever one concludes about Revelation 20, the bearing on this paper is the same. Satan's freedom is a leash, not a throne. He is bound and loosed at God's command, his time is measured, and his end is written: "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone" (Revelation 20:10). A believer who exercises authority in Christ does so in the shadow of that certainty.

This part matters because authority in the New Testament is never an end in itself. It is given for a purpose, and the purpose is the gospel.

From darkness to light

When the risen Christ met Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road, He told him what his mission would be:

“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” (Acts 26:18)

This is the believer's authority at its fullest. The greatest blow against the power of Satan is not an exorcism. It is a conversion. Every time a sinner turns "from the power of Satan unto God" and receives forgiveness, the strong man's house is plundered again.

Paul explains why the gospel is the decisive weapon. The enemy's main work among unbelievers is blindness: "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them" (2 Corinthians 4:4). And the remedy is not a technique but a creation: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). The believer's part is in the verse between: "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord" (2 Corinthians 4:5).

Strongholds

The phrase "pulling down strongholds" is used today for everything from binding regional spirits to breaking family curses. Here is what Paul actually wrote:

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

The strongholds in this passage are "imaginations" (reasonings, arguments) and "every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God". The battle is for the mind, and the weapons are "mighty through God". The context is Paul's defence of his apostolic ministry against false teachers in Corinth. He is describing the work of truth: tearing down arguments raised against God and bringing thoughts captive to Christ.

That is why apologetics, teaching, preaching and patient conversation are spiritual warfare. When a skeptic's objection to Christ is answered, a stronghold falls. When a believer's lie about himself ("God could never forgive me") is replaced with the truth of the gospel, a stronghold falls. Paul tells Timothy that the Lord's servant must be "gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will" (2 Timothy 2:24-26). Gentleness, teaching and patience are named here as the means by which people escape the devil's snare.

The church that hell cannot stop

Jesus promised His church, "upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). Gates do not attack. They defend. The picture is of a church on the move, and of hell's defences unable to keep it out. The believer's authority is that of a member of an advancing church, carrying the gospel into places the enemy has held.

The weapons that overcame

Revelation describes how the saints overcame the accuser:

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” (Revelation 12:11)

Three things, and none of them is a technique. The blood of the Lamb is the cross, which answers every accusation. The word of their testimony is their faithful witness to Christ. And they "loved not their lives unto the death": they were willing to suffer. The victory of the saints in Revelation looks much more like martyrdom than like triumph in a stadium.

The Lausanne statement warned of this very danger: "When we separate the cross from spiritual conflict, we create a climate of triumphalism."²³ The believer's authority is the authority of the Lamb who was slain. It conquers by faithfulness, and sometimes by dying.

A testimony

Some of the guests on my show have told of being set free from spiritual bondage when they turned to Christ. One of them came out of exactly the kind of spirituality that trades in power and technique.

Mike Shreve told his story on The King Is Coming Show (TKIC #46): a kundalini and yoga guru with 300 students — until, in his telling, one prayer ended it all, and he was born again on a Tampa roadside. Watch it in his own words: youtube.com/watch?v=oqAq58bDC4k Mike's account of what happened to him, shared as his testimony — weigh it for yourself.

His account is worth hearing alongside this paper. What he describes ending his old life is not a ritual but a prayer.

Testifying

The final form of the believer's authority is the simplest: telling the truth about Jesus. "The word of their testimony" overcame the accuser. My own story is short. I decided to read the Bible for one reason: to disprove it, so I'd have an excuse to stop going to church for good. It did the opposite. Then one day I got on my knees and prayed: "Jesus, if you are real, show me — and I'll serve you." A warmth ran from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. Peace I'd never known, and it didn't leave.

That is my account; weigh it for yourself. But the most powerful thing any believer can do against the darkness is to tell people about the One who brings them out of it.

The believer's authority in Christ is real. Jesus said, "I give unto you power", and He meant it. The devils were subject to the seventy, and to Paul in Philippi, and to the Christians of Justin's Rome. Nothing in this paper should make a believer timid before the enemy. "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4).

But the authority is of a particular kind, and the text marks its shape clearly.

| The believer's authority is… | It is not… | |---|---| | Delegated: "I give unto you" (Luke 10:19) | A power of our own words | | Rooted in union with the risen Christ (Ephesians 2:6) | A rank earned by the spiritually elite | | Exercised in His name, by faith (Acts 3:16) | A spell anyone can use (Acts 19:13-16) | | Mostly to stand and resist (Ephesians 6:13; James 4:7) | A campaign to hunt demons | | Brief and commanding (Mark 1:25; Acts 16:18) | A conversation with demons | | Under the Father's will (1 John 5:14) | A guarantee of the outcome we want | | Over the devil's works | Over other people, angels, or territories mapped by method | | For the gospel (Acts 26:18; Ephesians 6:19) | For wealth, success or display | | Joyful in salvation first (Luke 10:20) | Joyful in power first |

A next step

If you want to grow in this, the path is not exotic.

• Read Ephesians through in a single sitting, several times over a month. Notice every "in Christ" and every mention of the powers.
• Learn to answer temptation and accusation with Scripture, as Jesus did. "It is written."
• Deal with the open doors of Ephesians 4:25–32: lies, anger, theft, bitterness, unforgiveness. Give no place.
• When you pray against the enemy's work, pray to the Father, in the name of Jesus, briefly and in faith, and leave the outcome with Him.
• Pray for boldness to preach, as Paul asked. The gospel is the weapon that plunders the strong man's house.
• If you face serious spiritual oppression, go to the mature, sound elders of your church (James 5:14). Authority is exercised best in the body, not alone.

An invitation

If you are reading this and you do not yet know Christ, none of this authority is yours, and it is not meant to be the first thing you seek. The first thing is the cross. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21) is the door. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is offered to you, not as a technique, but as a new life: "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)" (Ephesians 2:5). And His promise stands: "him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37).

If you do know Him, then remember where you sit, and remember what to rejoice in.

“Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20)