Part 1:

"...He (JESUS) gave them (His followers) power against unclean spirits, to cast them out..." ~Matthrew 10:1.

"JESUS sent forth (His followers), and commanded them, saying, 'Go...cast out devils..." ~Matthew 10:5,8.

"...He (JESUS) sent them (His followers) forth...to have power...to cast out devils." ~Mark 3:14,15.

"And He (JESUS) called...and began to send them (His followers) forth two and two, and gave them power over unclean spirits..." ~Mark 6:7.

"And He (JESUS) said unto them (His followers)...'In My Name shall they (future followers as well) cast out devils...' " ~Mark 16:17.

"Then He (JESUS) called...and gave them (His followers) power and authority over all devils..." ~Luke 9:1.

"Behold, I (JESUS) give unto you (My followers) power...over all the power of the enemy..." ~Luke 10:19.

Those are our orders, issued by our Commander-in-Chief. But what are we to do with them?

NOTICE, JESUS recognized satan, his demons, evil spirits, and devils as real; and gave us the low down about their modus operandi. But He reminds us that these are not just some pesky little creatures bent on annoying humans. They are, instead, cold, calculating, resourceful, cannot be appeased or pacified: AND they are out to destroy you and me...everyone...families, nations, but particularly Christians.

Now let us consider JESUS' methodology (John 14:6) in getting rid of demons and devils from human beings. If you are interested in this type of ministry...or if confronted by a demon-possessed individual... you will want to know the only true way to success. So I invite you to examine the record, GOD's Word, and we will start in Matthew 4:1-11, which describes CHRIST's encounters with satan in the wilderness.

Don't miss the impact here that every time satan tempted JESUS, the only weapon our Commander-in-Chief used was the Sword of the SPIRIT, which is the Word of GOD! By this example we are again reminded of the importance of immersing and saturating our minds with Scripture.

Here are a few details worth noting:

1) satan never questioned the authority of the Word. NEVER...NOT ONCE!

2) JESUS quoted each time from the book of Deuteronomy. (For anyone who thinks the Old Testament is obsolete, I 'd say, think again).

3) JESUS did not vary His method, but consistently used the Word against the destroyer of souls.

Also, take note, JESUS never entered into a conversation with the devil. He had only one reply and that was, "It is written...It is written...It is written..."

With this in mind, let's now investigate the other recorded instances of CHRIST's confrontations with satan's cohorts. The 1st encounter is perhaps the one most deliverance ministries take their pattern of operation from, it is found in Matthew 8:28-33 (it is further enhanced in Mark 5:1-20 and Luke 8:26-39). This is the only time JESUS engaged in a minor exchange with a demon. Luke 8:30 says, "JESUS asked him, 'What is your name (singular)?' The demon replied, 'legion', for there were many..." But take especial note that when JESUS commanded them to leave, they all did...instantly.

The 2nd encounter can be read about in Matthew 9:32-34, this one is very short: "As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spoke..."  In this senario there was intercession, for it says  "They brought to Him..."

The 3rd instance is located in Matthew 12:22, and it also is short. It says: "Then was brought unto Him one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb: and He (JESUS) healed him..."

Number 4 encounter is found in Matthew 15:21-28 (and Mark 7:24-30). This instance involves a pagan woman's faith in JESUS' power. Remember the story? How this heathen woman badgered JESUS about healing her daughter who was possessed by a demon. Because of her persistence, JESUS declared, "O woman, great is your faith, be it unto you even as you want."  This account concludes, "And her daughter was made whole that very hour."  There was a Prayer Warrior (the mother) but her daughter was not present. Notice though, all the Savior said was "...be it unto you even as you want", and the daughter was instantly delivered

Encounter 5 is in Mark 9:14-29 (Matthew 17:14-21; Luke 9:37-43). This is the longest of the encounters. JESUS had been up on the mount with three of His disciples, while down below the other nine have been asked to cast a demon out of a boy, but they weren't able. The story indicates that the disciples did try (v.18), but nothing happened. Then JESUS arrived on the scene, and the boy's dad explained the situation, finishing with "If You can do anything---"

JESUS replied, "All things are possible to those who believe."  To which the father responded, "I believe, help my unbelief!"  Then JESUS rebuked the unclean spirit (v.25), saying, "You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again."  Immediately, the demon left.

The 6th encounter is in Mark 16:9. No story this time, only a reference to an accomplished fact: "When JESUS was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils."

Finally, encounter 7, found in Luke 4:33-36. According to this story it happened on the Sabbath while JESUS was in church. As He stood up to speak a shrieking demon thrusts the man he possesses into JESUS' presence. "But JESUS rebuked him, saying, 'Be silent, and come out of him!' And the demon threw the man down, and came out of him."

REMEMBER, these texts are more than just stories; they are given to teach us, Prayer Warriors in particular, our Commander-in-Chief's methods of demon-busting. Each of these Scriptures records an important point for us to remember in our encounters:

First) JESUS contact in each is brief. Webster's New World dictionary defines the word brief as: short duration, short in length; few words; concise.

Second) When JESUS cast out one demon, or thousands, He did them all at one time; NOT one at a time.

Third) When cast out, the demon (or demons), devils, evil spirits...whatever, left---immediately.

Fourth) A Prayer Warrior, or Intercessor/Petitioner, did not need to be present with the victim to cast out evil.

Each of these characteristics or traits is vital for Prayer Warriors, as well as Christian regulars, to know.

All our spiritual battles belong to our Commander-in-Chief, and victory is assured (Exodus 14:13,14). But that assurances depends on who we know. Daniel 11:32 says it well:  "The people who know GOD shall be strong and do great exploits."

Part II.

Before getting into the "meat" of this subject, Prayer Warriors, we must understand the following. It is of immense importance in our combat against enemy forces.

Now before you hurriedly change sites because of this statement, please read Luke 10:17. In this verse, the 70 have just returned to JESUS from their evangelistic campaigns; they are excited, eagerly exclaiming one after the other, "LORD, even the devils are subject to us through Your name!"

Look at JESUS' response, what are His first words? "Don't rejoice because of that..." (v.20).

"Don't rejoice" because you can rebuke, bind, and cast out devils, demons, evil spirits, etc..  "Don't rejoice"  it isn't worth getting excited about. WHY NOT?

Because we belong to JESUS, and He supplies us with His power.

Unfortunately there are individuals (via websites, books, articles, etc) who insist that 'deliverance is a BIG deal.' Going so far as to advise the 'deliverer' to converse with the demons if they want to talk; and to give demons names such as:  Pepsi, Coke, chocolate, Mars bars (or whatever candy of choice), acne, arthritis, Jesus only, (I took these few 'names' from a list on a deliverance website...I am not kidding), grief, cancer, farsightedness, etc...

This is NOT our Commander-in-Chief's way!

In his book God Says, But I Think, Pastor Morris Venden says on pp 21, 22, & 30  "God has revealed His truth, and we must find it and accept it and know it for ourselves... "But can't I trust Graham Maxwell or Jack Provonsha or Billy Graham or Dr. Dobson (or...)?" you ask. No. The Bible says, Don't trust any person for the Truth unless you have searched it out for yourself."

So if you log on to any of these sites, fellow Warriors, or you have books and articles that run along the same line, believe them not.

Having said that, what do we do, or say, when confronted by someone who is obviously demon-possessed?

We use what Wesley Duewel, in his books Touch the World Through Prayer and Mighty Prevailing Prayer, calls the "Command of Faith."

We know the word that is translated "faith" means "belief" and "trust."  So the Command of Faith requires  that we have absolute belief in the One we trust, or, trust absolutely in the One we believe in. JESUS says, "I tell you the Truth, IF you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain (which signifies the difficulty before you), "Move from here to there and it will move. Nothing will be impossible to you." ~Matthew 17:20. This Truth is so important, that JESUS repeats it in even stronger words: "I tell you the Truth, IF you have faith and DO NOT DOUBT... you can say to the mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done, if you believe..." ~Matthew 21:21,22.

Literally, the Command of Faith is the putting into action our trust in our Commander-in-Chief's Word. It is verbalizing that Word. JESUS repeatedly demonstrated and used it. The disciples likewise used it. To the demon possessing the girl at Philippi (Acts 16:18), Paul ordered: "In the name of JESUS CHRIST I command you to come out of her."  And the demon was gone.

Notice, Paul did not get chummy with the demon (not even first name basis); he recognized the need, made the command, and the demon left...instantly! JESUS' way.

A) When should we use this command?  B) Does it in any way eliminate prayer?

A) We use the Command in situations where the Father's glory and honor is at stake, or where our Commander-in-Chief calls upon His combat forces to rescue the captives and destroy the enemy.  B) We use the Command as an addition to prayer. Because there are two essential prerequisites before an individual can safely and successfully execute the Command of Faith. The first is: You must be a really-truly born-again believer. Our Commander-in-Chief gives His authority and power only to them. And second: You must know CHRIST intimately, have developed unlimited confidence in Him and in His Word.

Catch the drama in Acts 19:13-16 when several nonbelievers, including the sons of Sceva, tried to use the Command of Faith against demons, and the results.

These men saw what Paul was doing, and decided to try out the Command for themselves... The very first time they tried it, the evil spirit responded saying, "JESUS I know and Paul I know, but who are you?" Then he attacked them with such violence that he drew blood.

When we, you and I, fellow Prayer Warriors, know our Commander-in-Chief as He wants us to know Him, when we maintain our connection daily, moment-by-moment, we can face any enemy and conquer them with confidence. Victory is assured.

Now go forward, command satan's forces to leave whomever they are bothering. Bind them and cast them out in the precious name of JESUS. All the world of darkness fears His name. Use it...use it...dare to dislodge, kick out, and defeat the enemy in JESUS name... All power in heaven and earth is behind His name.

It cannot be overemphasized the importance of commanding demons, devils, spirits of darkness, etc. to leave by the authority of JESUS' name.

"By the authority given me, as a soldier in JESUS' army, I bind all your workings in  (name of individual),  and order you to leave in JESUS name."

"In JESUS' name I command you to leave  name of individual. "

"You are dead meat. By faith I cover  name of individual with CHRIST's shed blood. I command you in JESUS' name, GO!"

Do not be flippant when confronting any demon-possessed individuals, but do not fear them either. Don't focus on the power of darkness, because if you do you will begin to feel insignificant and helpless. DON'T look at them, Prayer Warriors, satan's host are stronger than you...me...us. But we come in the Name of our Commander-in-Chief...who is stronger and more powerful than all of them, individually and collectively. If we abide in Him, He'll abide in us (John 15:7), and ALL THE POWER OF HEAVEN AND IN EARTH (Matthew 28:18) is ours.  It is through His power deliverance is assured!

Part lll   "Code Breaking"

Secular militaries all use some kind of code in their communications so their enemies will not know their plans. And they all have specific individuals whose only occupation is to try (often succeeding) to crack, or break, the others' code. Hence their title  "Code Breakers."

Likewise, all Christians  must be code breakers of our enemy's attempts to deceive. Even though satan has lost the war, he is still trying to get people (souls) over to his side. Because his frontal assaults so often fail, his cohorts have initiated more devious covert operations.

The enemy's objective though remains clear. One way or another, they are out to bring pain and sorrow to our heavenly Family through us--through our choices. What will we believe? Obey? Trust? The devil and his host are out to destroy us--you, fellow Prayer Warriors and me--here on this earth; but particularly, eternally.

We've all heard the cliche'  "What you don't know, won't hurt you" --the Truth is, that where spiritual matters are concerned, what we don't know will hurt us, big time!

As a Christian, and a fellow Prayer Warrior, I am deeply concerned about the accepted distortions regarding satan and his cohorts.

Being the author of deception (John 8:44), and confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), satan's underhandedness is so cleverly simple and yet so brilliantly designed to deceive "if possible, the very elect" ~Matthew 24:24.

It may sound like blasphemy to some, but the purpose of Part lll  "Code Breakers" is to re-examine the accurancy of two verses, in the light of our Commander-in-Chief's orders.

PLEASE READ PRAYERFULLY...

"For if GOD spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment..." ~2 Peter 2:4.

"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." ~Jude 6.

Misinterpretations are launching pads for false conclusions. Taken at face value these verses have puzzled and perplexed many. So that what these individuals (through books, articles, and websites) are promoting is ludicrous, and scary.

What is being promoted? The fallen angels are not the demons, devils, or evil spirits; that they are bound in chains in darkness somewhere and are not now active in this world...  How do these people explain who or what demons etc. are? They don't. They have no explanation for who the demons are or how they came to this earth. Wesley Duewel in his book Touch the World Through Prayer says "We DO NOT KNOW the demons origin... they must have been holy once and chose to be sinful... We do not need to know the details about them..."

Dear Prayer Warriors, fellow Christians, heavy fog on a highway is dangerous, often resulting in fatalities. If we-you and I-do not come out of the fog of falsehood on this issue, it will be fatal for us.

The genius of code breaking misinterpretations is in our Commander-in-Chief's methods. The evil one is intelligent, but our Commander-in-Chief is brilliant! And if we truly want to know His Truth, we will do things His way, not ours.

What is His method? Isaiah 28:9,10 reveals it: "Whom shall He teach knowledge? And whom shall He make to understand doctrine?... Precept must be upon precept...line upon line...here a little, and there a little..."

The It Is Written Heritage Edition of The Open Bible (Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers, 1975) says on p.1181, and I quote:

"Precept upon precept...line upon line. Here a little and there a little. If we want to know what the Bible teaches...take what Jesus said...and what all the Bible writers said...And we have the Truth...God never intended that Bible truth be discovered by the study of a single scripture text. In fact, God never intended that we study the Bible on our denominational background... Rather, we are to check our beliefs and discover the clear teaching of the Scriptures by studying what each Bible writer has to say about a given subject. Line up these clear statements of truth just as you would pillars. Then as we sight down these Scripture pillars what do we see? We see Bible Truth as is taught by all the sacred writers. The more scriptures (verses) brought into line on a single subject, the safer the interpretation... There are isolated scriptures that, by themselves, simply are not clear... there are people who like to speculate...argue about them. And the temptation is to try to make them say what we want them to say..."

Our Commander's instructions about interpreting, or 'code breaking', are:  "Search the Scriptures." ~John 5:39.

Now I must ask the question: If these 2 verses cannot be taken in a strictly literal sense, and we know they do not harmonize, where do we begin? First, I believe we need to identify who or what the demons (also called devils and evil spirits) are.

The following few verses clearly identify who the angels are: Colossians 1:16; Luke 20:36; Matthrew 25:31; Psalm 103:20; Job 4:18; and Hebrews 1:14 says angels are  "...ministering spirits sent to care for all those who will inherit salvation."

How did they become demons? Read Isaiah 14:12-20; Ezekiel 28:14-19; Revelation 12:7-9 (v.9 says:  "...the devil...was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.").

From that time onwards, Lucifer became satan and his angels (spirits-Hebrews 1:14) "kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation..." ~Jude 6 and in their new sinful natures became  "evil spirits or demons." As a result of the war in heaven 1/3 of GOD's ministering spirits (also called angels) defected with satan (Revelation 12:4). Remember, they were originally created sinless, plus equal in nature, power, and glory with the others of their kind, but they chose to go with satan, and thus became evil.

What about the part that says they are "chained in darkness"?

Check out the following: 

JESUS own words:  "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." ~John 3:19.

These verses, plus the 150 others found in the Bible affirm that the darkness referred to in 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6, have to do with our world, this planet Earth...here where we live, fellow Prayer Warriors.

What about "being cast down to hell (or Tartarus)"? First, the word 'hell' is not in the original text (check it out at www.htmlbible.com, under the 'Parallel Nestle Greek.'), though it is found in nearly all English Bibles. The word actually used is Tartarus, this was thought to be a pagan place of punishment, which leads clear-thinking Christians to wonder if Peter, a Christian, actually included such a word in his writings. Or if he did, was he using the word figuratively to indicate the evil spirits were to be stuck here, on this earth with us, where they were cast (Revelation 12:4), until the judgment day.

And last, Webster's Dictionary defines 3 kinds of chains:

REMEMBER:  The fallen angels are spiritual beings; they cannot be bound by literal chains. So if these aren't literal shackles, then they must be bound by their circumstances. This means they can no longer go to heaven or to any other created world, they have to stay here...and they do because our heavenly Father, the Creator, is still in charge.

So why is all this important for us to know?

"It shouldn't surprise you...satan was once an angel of light and he can still appear as one. So it's no great thing for those under him to look like ministers of righteousness..." ~2 Corinthians 11:14,15.

"For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." ~Matthew 24:24.

"For false Christs and false prophets shall rise and show signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect." ~Mark 13:22.

Ask yourselves, Prayer Warriors/Christians, if satan's angels were not active today in this world and an angel of light or a 'minister of righteousness' showed up sometime when you're praying and said GOD had changed some of His laws and they were no longer binding. Would you believe it?

Heaven has done everything it possibly can to save you and me from eternal death, my friends. The verses we've already read plus 1 Corinthians 6:3 should logically tell us that the fallen angels are indeed the evil spirits, wicked spirits, demons, and devils plaguing our world today. And we should be preparing ourselves for their great signs and wonders so we will not be deceived.