Spiritual Warfare

I. The weapons of devil

a) false teaching (ideas) - right teaching

b) incapacity of understanding - prayer for enlightenment (excludes the individual effort and implies the other person or God exclusively)

c) stealing the word from someone’s heart

d) inability (repentance, prayer and teaching) (another person is optional, but preferred)

e) diseases (healing / exorcism ) - another person is optional, but preferred

f) possession (exorcism) - implies another person (necessary).

Nature of Satan

Satan does not know the motives of Job’s righteousness according to Job 1.

He is not omnipresent

He is not omnipotent

He is under God’s authority

He cannot understand the motives of someone’s heart - Job 1

He is used by God who intrumentalizes Satan’s schemes to his advatange - Satan demanded that you may be swifted.

Satan’s direct influence - direct cause

Satan’s indirect influence - indirect cause

Satan sphere of Influence -mind and body

Satan means of influence - vairous

The idea of curse is nowhere present in NT.

The idea of demonic influence is nowhere described as being from the womb either directly or indirectly.

Luke 10:18 shows how the influence of satan was thorough illnesses and other things places. Once the methods of his operation are destroyed then his overall presence is destroyed.

That is to say, Jesus not only saw various maladies as manifestations of the single power of evil (Satan), but he also claimed that release could be won by tackling the malady (whatever the physical manifestation) at its spiritual root and source.

So when Jesus spoke of having bound the strong man and of despoiling his goods (Mark 3:27; cf. Luke 10:18) his readers would know what he meant: the end of the age is upon you; the characteristics of the final reign of God are already being enacted in my ministry; you are witnessing the power of the age to come already in operation. It was this which in Jesus' own view distanced other Jewish exorcisms from his (cf. Matthew 12:27). His were effected by the power of the Spirit (Matthew 12:28), and, since the Spirit was popularly thought to have been withdrawn till the end of the age,32 his own anointing by the Spirit and effective ministry as healer and exorcist in the power of the Spirit was proof enough that the end of the age had come (Matthew 11:5, 12:28).

Less striking, but also deserving some comment, is the relative silence regarding exorcism in the post-Easter church and its mission. In contrast to the commission given to his disciples when they shared in his pre-Easter mission (Mark 6:7/Matthew 10:1/Luke 9:1), Jesus' final commission makes no mention of exorcism (Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:46-9; John 20:21-3; Acts 1:8). 35 Acts mentions exorcisms of the first Christian missionaries only twice (Acts 8:7, 16:16-18, cf.19: 11-20). And exorcisms are never given specific mention in any of the other New Testament documents-though it is by no means impossible, of course, that they are included in such passages as Romans 15:19,1 Corinthians 12:9f and Hebrews 2:4.

The power of sin and of Law is also the power of elemental spirits in Galatians and Colossians.

The manifestations of Satan's authority, of the grip and ill-effects of evil, were not confined to demon-possession, and Paul (and the other New Testament writers) were very conscious of the malignant power of evil that darkened men's minds, enslaved their passions, and corrupted their bodies. The gospel and the Spirit of God are God's most emphatic counter to such evil in all its range and manifestations.

The New Testament neither contains nor is interested in a fully worked out demonology. When the New Testament talks about demons, its concern is to describe various manifestations of spiritual bondage. Such bondage can be described also as 'having an unclean spirit', or being dominated by Satan, and is essentially of a piece with being 'enslaved by the elemental spirits', being 'blinded by the god of this world', being afflicted by 'an angel/messenger of Satan', or being inspired by 'the spirit of antichrist'. 'Demon-possession' was one way of understanding and representing such bondage, particularly when more disturbing physical manifestations were involved, but it was not the only way.