"Paul Was Greatly Annoyed, So He Told
the Demon to Come Out, in Jesus' Name"
by Victoria Boyson
www.boyson.org
September 25, 2004
"It happened that as we were going to the
place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was
bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and
us, she kept crying out, saying, 'These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of
salvation.' She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly
annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, 'I command you in the name of Jesus
Christ to come out of her!' And it came out at that very moment." Acts 16:16-18
Did you notice that Paul did not even ask the girl's
permission before he cast the demon out of her? Nor did he ask the permission
of her owners. He did not ask her parents or aunts or uncles. He did not even
speak with the girl, but he spoke to the demon inside of her, over which he had
full authority! And it came out of her right away and she no longer had any
power to tell the future (see Acts 16:19).
Paul did not spend hours counseling the girl on the dangers of divination. He
didn't take any time to convince her that she could and should be delivered, he just spoke to the demon and drove it out of
her in the name of Jesus Christ.
Too Caught Up
Sometimes, I think we can get too caught up in what our limitations are as
followers of Christ instead of just following Christ; He took authority over
demons. He didn't counsel them out, beat them out, or preach them out; He
simply cast them out, and then told the people to sin no more.
I believe it is a deception of the enemy to try and get our focus to be on our
limitations as Christians. If he can get us caught up in questioning or
doubting whether or not we have authority, he will keep us from taking
authority over him. Then he will be able to continue his evil schemes in our
lives and in the lives of those we love.
The message in Acts 16:16-18 is so powerful, because, if we examine it, we see
it says that Paul's motive for delivering her was that "Paul was greatly
annoyed." The demon was simply bothering him and so he cast it out of her,
rendering it powerless to affect him and the girl.
He didn't know the girl. He wasn't her pastor or parent or master; he had no
earthly authority over her. All he had was the authority given to him in the
name of Jesus Christ. The demon that was harassing him didn't have a chance.
Many times I have been approached by other believers who came with their list
of rules that I must follow in order to be successful in taking authority over
the enemy. By the time I am done listening to them, I am more confused than
ever. I end up feeling like there is no way I could possibly measure up to all
their rules and restrictions. They make me feel hopeless and powerless. But, I
finally made up my mind that I'm going to continue to "walk on water"
until they can prove to me that I can't.
All Paul had was annoyance and Jesus, and he changed a young girl's life. The
demon "power" that manifested through her was gone and she was set
free.
The Children of This Age
In this day and age, with the enemy parading his power before the young people
of this generation and enticing them to do evil, we need to know the authority
we have in Christ.
The children of this age feel powerless and helpless to help themselves, and
they are greatly influenced by the ungodly power they see in movies, books, and
games. But we can, like Paul, take authority over the power in them and command
the demons to come out.
One day, several years ago, my husband and I were led to go into a store that
sold video games. We were appalled at the high level of blatant demonic
activity in the games we saw. Even the covers of the games were filled with
glorified demons and lust-filled pictures of scantily dressed women. We were
further offended by the fact that the clientele of this store were primarily
children.
It did not take us any time to decide that this store should no longer be in
business! So, together we commanded it to go out of business in Jesus' name. We
also commanded that every demon in every game that had been sold by that store
would leave the game and not return. Within a few months it closed!
Righteously
Annoyed!
For my husband and I, our annoyance came by the
blatant parading of evil before the eyes of innocent children. We became
righteously annoyed! Our mother and father instincts took over and we wanted to
obliterate the devil for hurting these kids.
Those children were not ours, but they were God's; He made each one of them.
So, because they were His children, they became ours. We could not stand to see
them tormented by demonic spirits merely because they didn't know any better.
The children didn't know the demonic power that was in those games, but we did.
And the demons knew that we knew, and they became afraid, because they were
exposed to people who would take authority over them and render them powerless
for the sake of God's Kids.
"He
Is All the Power You Need!"
Church, it's time we stop debating our authority and just simply take authority
over the demonic realm. This generation desperately needs us. There are so many
young people that have gotten entangled in darkness, and the demonic powers are
tormenting them. They are depressed and suicidal; they need deliverance. Yes,
they need to be told the truth about witchcraft, etc... But, until we can get
close enough to them to effectively train them, we
must get rid of the tormenting spirits.
We need to show our young people where the real power lies, so they will no
longer want the imitation. The real power is in Jesus Christ. He is the real
super-natural power. He has conquered the evil power of our enemy and given us
the authority to render them powerless (see Luke 9:1). Jesus won at
Do not let the enemy convince you that you are powerless. You have all the
power you need, because you know the ALMIGHTY, ALL-POWERFUL GOD of the
universe. And HE is ALL THE POWER YOU NEED!
by Victoria Boyson
www.boyson.org