Hi all,
Back in the 1970’s there was a US comedian who created a character named ‘Geraldine’, and her punch line was “The devil made me do it.” The skit was always about how Geraldine committed a sin but didn’t want to be held responsible for it. So ‘the devil made me do it.’
Your will is stronger than the devil
The devil couldn’t make Geraldine do anything – she just wanted to escape responsibility for her own life. She wanted to blame her troubles on the devil or others. But our will is sovereign. Neither God nor the devil nor anyone else can make anyone do anything.
Consider that every year millions of unsaved people all over the world get delivered of addictions and sinful habits they recognize as destructive, just by an act of their will. They get out of demonic strongholds just be setting their will not to do that thing which has held them in bondage for years: Drugs, s*x, addictions, emotional disorders, depression, gambling, etc.
Many of these are the same sins for which Christians call out for prayer to help them overcome, or blame the devil for their latest fall into sin. One of the most subtle deceptions of the devil is getting Christians to think they are powerless. Not only do we have Christ in us and the authority to use His name to command demons away from us, but like every human being, our will is sovereign. The devil had to tempt Adam and Eve; he couldn’t make the decision to sin for them.
You can’t rebuke the devil with success unless you deal with the fact you like that sin. Determine that isn’t your life anymore. Be like Moses who valued more highly heaven than the riches of Egypt and passing pleasures of sin*. Crucify that lust (lust is any desire for sin that resists control). Once we set our will, then and only then does any rebuke of the demonic have any power. *Hebrews 11: 25-27
“These signs will follow those who believe in my name…they will cast out demons.” That requires an act of our will to use our free will and authority to command demons away from us. Mark 16:17
Neither Jesus nor the disciples prayed for a person under demonic attack
They cast out the demon. Command the thing its boundaries. Tell it to leave. If someone has a demon but they don’t want to be set free, at least use the Name to command it to be silent when you are around the person. If a neighbor has a demon and it is using them to attack you, just command that spirit to stop its attack, and then pray for that neighbor.
Jesus (and the apostles) only dealt with demons He and they came into direct contact with. You can’t take authority over every demon in the world, and there is no evidence we can command demons over cities or territories. But if you come into contact with a person with a demon, then you have authority. You have no authority over someone’s human spirit, but you do have authority over a demonic spirit.
Free-will is a gift from God that you’ll never know how to use until you fight for it.
That includes resisting temptation and fighting for your right to righteousness and holiness. In a visitation, the Lord was teaching me about decision-making. Suddenly, a small pond appeared a short distance from us, and in the Lord’s left hand a small stone, which He tossed underhanded, gently into the pond.
Where the stone hit the water, ripples went out in perfect circles, and then the scene froze and an X appeared on one of the outer circles. The Lord continued: “Where the stone hit is a decision a person makes that is not my will. Each ripple is 1 year, and the X is an event, sometimes a tragedy, that happens even 5 years or more after that wrong decision was made.”
He went on to talk about how a person wonders why God allowed it. It was the 2nd time in all my visitations He repeated that He and the Father are just and right (true) in all things, and on that day all will be revealed. But still, many of us who have had a tragedy in our lives are unable to see the decisions we made sometimes years earlier, which resulted in the current outcome.
Sometimes the result of a decision is revealed quickly,
…like we decide not to get a step stool, choosing a nearby chair instead, and fall and injure ourselves. In that situation is easy for us to connect the dots as to why something happened. But let’s say we miss God and make the wrong decision and start down that path. When something happens 1 or 5 years later, we don’t always remember back to that fateful decision made years earlier.
Sometimes we do. A person finds themselves 20 years into a horrible marriage and they think back with regret to their decision to get married to their spouse. They fooled themselves, perhaps, thinking it was God, or thinking God would change them…the same in business, jobs, friends. We make the decision, then later bad things happen, then some blame God. Many times there is a heavy price to pay and we are angry at ourselves, at God, at another person…but our free will put it all in motion.
So what is the purpose if free will is trial and error?
“Don’t be conformed to this world, but undergo a metamorphosis by renewing your mind. Then you will be able to prove the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Romans 12: 2
The path along which we prove good, acceptable, and perfect, is full of mistakes we make. This verse would suggest a trial and error process of finding the Father’s good, then acceptable, then perfect will for us. What this is is the purpose of free will if we so often struggle through the process?
And that brings us to next week, the purpose of trials and tribulations as it relates to exercising free will.
Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
