Matthew 8:5-13 “Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, (6) saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented." (7) And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him." (8) The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. (9) For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." (10) When Jesus heard it, He marvelled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! (11) And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. (12) But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (13) Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed that same hour.”
The next sphere of influence that believers have, is over their employees. In the above quoted passage of scripture we have the account of the centurion who obtained healing from the Lord Jesus on behalf of his servant. And so we see that in this instance the servant wasn’t healed through his own faith; it was through the faith of his employer. Jesus recognized the authority that the centurion had over his servant and therefore allowed his faith to be used for his servants healing. And so the tormenting spirit that was afflicting the centurion’s servant had no choice in the matter, and had to obey the command of the Lord Jesus. That same principle applies today with believers who choose to exercise their authority in the lives of their staff. In other words when a believer exercises their authority in this area, Satan and his angels have no option except to obey.
Acts 5:16 “Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.”
Believers also have full authority over demons that are affecting the lives of people who willingly come to the saints for deliverance. In the above quoted passage of scripture we see that everyone that came to the disciples to be delivered from the torment of unclean spirits were healed. The reason for that is because the individual that is tormented, in the act of coming to the believer for deliverance, is in that instance submitting themselves to the authority of the believer, thus allowing the believer to exercise their authority over the demon or demons that are afflicting them. And in that instance Satan and his demons also have no choice but to obey the disciple that exercises their authority in the name of Jesus.
Acts 16:16-18 “Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. (17) This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation." (18) And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very hour.”
Another area where the believer has full authority over Satan and his angels is when they try to harass the believer. In the above quoted passage of scripture we have an account of a demon, which had possessed the slave girl, trying to publicly embarrass the Lord’s apostles. In doing so, the demon opened the door for Paul to deal with him, and so Paul promptly obliged by using his authority to cast the demon out of her. Too late the demon found out that Paul was a believer that understood his authority in Jesus, and so the demon had to leave her. But I want you to notice that Paul didn’t go looking for the demon to cast him out. So what do I mean by that statement? Everyone in town knew that this slave girl was a fortune-teller, including Paul. However, not everyone knew that the reason she practiced fortune-telling was because she was possessed by a spirit of divination. Although Paul knew that she was possessed, he nevertheless did not go to the place where she practiced fortune-telling to cast the demon out of her, because that would have been outside of Paul’s realm of authority and he would have had no success and may have even landed up in some trouble. In other words Paul did not go looking to pick a fight with the devil in his own domain.
Luke 10:18-20 “And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. (19) Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. (20) Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
There is one more area which falls outside the saints’ sphere of influence and over which they cannot therefore exercise authority. In the above quoted passage of scripture our Lord clearly tells us that He has given us authority over all the power of the enemy. The church’s enemy is Satan and all of his demons, for the scripture teaches us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12). In other words men are not the church’s enemy and the church does not wrestle against them, but rather the church is called to walk in love toward men. Our Lord confirmed that truth in this passage by telling us that the spirits are subject to us. The spirits that our Lord is referring to in this passage are all of the unclean spirits that form part of Satan’s kingdom. And so we see that although the church has authority over Satan and his entire kingdom, believers do not have authority over men in the earth. That agrees with the point that we mentioned earlier when we said that God will not override the free will of men in the earth. And so God does not give the church authority over men in the earth, for then the church would be able to exercise authority over their free wills, and God will not allow that.
Michael E.B. Maher
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