The Bible and Life

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Jesus Dealt With Demons

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

JESUS DEALT WITH DEMONS.

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Jesus Himself was extremely practical in His dealings with demons. At the same time, He emphasized the unique significance of this ministry of expelling demons when He said, "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Matthew 12:28).

Casting out demons demonstrated two important spiritual truths.

First, it revealed the existence of two opposing spiritual kingdoms: the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.

Second, it demonstrated the victory of God's Kingdom over Satan's. Obviously Satan would prefer to keep these two truths hidden!

When Jesus cast out demons, He went beyond the precedents of the Old Testament. From the time of Moses onward, God's prophets had performed many miracles that foreshadowed the ministry of Jesus. They had healed the sick, raised the dead, made miraculous provision for multitudes and demonstrated God's power to control the forces of nature. But there is no record that any of them had ever cast out a demon.

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This was reserved for Jesus. It was a unique demonstration that the Kingdom of God had come upon the people of His day. This makes it all the more remarkable that this ministry has been largely ignored by the contemporary Church in many parts of the world. Evangelism, especially in the West, has frequently been practiced as if demons did not exist. Let me say, as graciously as possible, that evangelism that does not include the casting out of demons is not New Testament evangelism.

I will take this a step further and apply it to the ministry of praying for the sick. It is unscriptural to pray for the sick if one is not prepared also to cast out demons. Jesus did not separate one from the other.

On the other side, there are those today who carry this practice of casting out demons to unscriptural extremes. They give the impression that any kind of problem-physical, emotional or spiritual-should be treated as demonic. But this approach is unbalanced and unscriptural. Sometimes, too, deliverance is carried out in a way that gives more prominence to the minister or to the one receiving deliverance than to the Lord Jesus.

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Personally, I see this as further evidence of Satan's special and intense opposition to the ministry of deliverance. If possible, he seeks to exclude it altogether from the Church's program. Failing that, his aim is to discredit it.

For my part, I certainly did not volunteer! As I said, I was confronted by situations in which I was forced to choose between two alternatives: taking action against the demons or backing down and giving way to them. Looking back, I am glad I chose not to back down.

- Derek Prince (They shall expel demons)

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Friday, November 15, 2024

Derek Prince (Prayer Intercessor)

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Here is an article about a great preacher from Jesus Saves TV.

Text: James 5:16.

Derek Prince

Derek Prince (1915-2003) was born in Bangalore, India, into a British military family. He was educated as a scholar of classical languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Aramaic) at Eton College

and Cambridge University in England and later at Hebrew University, Israel. As a student, he was a philosopher and self-proclaimed atheist. He held a fellowship (equivalent to a resident

professorship) in Ancient and Modern Philosophy at King's College, Cambridge.

While in the British Medical Corps during World War II, Prince began to study the Bible as a philosophical work. Converted through a powerful encounter with Jesus Christ, he was baptized in the Holy Spirit a few days later. This life-changing experience altered the whole course of his life, which he thereafter devoted to studying and teaching the Bible as the Word of God.

Discharged from the army in Jerusalem in 1945, he married Lydia Christensen, founder of a children's home there. Upon their marriage, he immediately became father to Lydia's eight adopted

daughters—six Jewish, one Palestinian Arab, one English. Together the family saw the rebirth of the state of Israel in 1948. In the late 1950s, Derek and Lydia adopted another daughter while he was serving as principal of a college in Kenya.

Derek Prince's headstone

In 1963 the Princes immigrated to the United States and pastored a church in Seattle. Stirred by the tragedy of John F. Kennedy's assassination, he began to teach Americans how to intercede for their nation. In 1973 he became one of the founders of Intercessors for America. Lydia Prince died in 1975, and in 1978 Derek married Ruth Baker (a single mother to three adopted children). He met his second wife, like his first, while she was serving the Lord in Jerusalem. Ruth died in December 1998 in Jerusalem where they had lived since 1981.

Until a few years before his own death in 2003 at the age of 88, Prince persisted in the ministry God had called him to as he traveled the world, imparting God's revealed truth.

William James Roop

Author Page

Friday, September 27, 2024

Satan's Opposition Against The Ministry.

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Here is an interesting message from the Evangelist, Derek Prince.

Text: John 10:10; James 4:7.

Jesus never sent anyone out to preach the Gospel without specifically instructing and equipping that person to take action against demons in the same way that He Himself did. I can find no basis anywhere in the New Testament for an evangelistic ministry that does not include the expelling of demons. This is as true today as it was in the time of Jesus.

I soon came to realize that satan has developed a special opposition to this ministry. He is, by choice, a creature of darkness. He prefers to keep the true nature of his activities concealed. If he can keep humanity unaware of his tactics or even of his very existence he can use the twin tools of ignorance and fear to open the way for his destructive purposes.

Unfortunately, ignorance and fear are not confined to non Christians. They are often at work inside the Church. All too often Christians have treated demons with superstitious dread, as if they are in the same category as ghosts or dragons.

Books by William Roop

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

The Nature Of Rejection

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Here is an article by Derek Prince that I wanted to share.

THE NATURE OF REJECTION

ln most all of us have experienced rejection at one time or another, but many of us have not understood its nature or its effects. The rejection may have been something relatively minor—or it may have been so devastating that it affected your whole life and all your relationships.

Here are some common examples: you were not chosen to play on a school sports team; your first boyfriend failed to show up for an important date and never gave you a reason; you were not accepted at the college of your choice; you were laid off from your job for no good reason—they said you were “redundant.”

Far worse than these examples is the pain that comes because you never felt love from your father, because you sensed your mother didn’t want you, or because your marriage ended in divorce.

Experiences such as these leave permanent wounds, whether you are aware of them or not. But I have good news for you! God can heal you from the wounds that come from rejection, help you to accept yourself, and enable you to show His love to others. However, before you can receive His help, you must recognize the nature of your problem.

Rejection can be defined as believe the Devil has some foreknowledge. He knows God wants to use you, and he has struck his blow first. In a way, it is a kind of twisted compliment.

It means that Satan is afraid of what you can become in Christ. So, do not be discouraged. In my experience, I have found that the people who have been the lowest often end up the highest. The Scriptures tell us, "He who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14 NIV).

There is a verse in Matthew that I believe describes how Jesus feels toward you:

But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them...

(Matt. 9:36a NKJV)

The Greek word translated "compassion" is amazingly powerful. It implies a forceful, physical reaction in a person's body in the abdominal area. It is a reaction so strong that it demands a response. A person who is "moved with compassion" cannot stand by and observe. He must do something. Why was Jesus so moved?

...because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.

(Matt. 9:36b NKJV).

That is just how you may feel: weary, harried, frustrated, perplexed, fearful, anxious, burdened down. Jesus sees you, just as He saw the multitudes. He has compassion for you. He is longing to heal you where you hurt the most.First, we must understand the true nature of rejection. How does rejection occur? What causes the wounding? When we answer these questions, then we can ask, How can wounds of rejection be treated?

About 1964, I often found myself ministering to people who were bound by addictions to substances such as nicotine or alcohol. Very quickly, however, I discovered that addictions such as these are merely twigs that have sprouted from a branch. Normally, the branch that supports them is some form of frustration.

Therefore, the practical solution is to deal with the branch. When the branch of frustration is cut off, dealing with the twigs of addiction is relatively easy. As I continued to wrestle with people's personal problems, I gradually worked my way down the trunk of the tree until I came to the part of the tree that lies below the surface—that is, the roots. It is here that God seeks to work in our lives.

And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matt. 3:10 NKJV).

From where is the tree cut down? From the roots. When I got down below the surface, I made a discovery that surprised me at first. One of the most common roots of all personal problems is rejection. I reached this conclusion, not as a sociologist or as a psychologist, but as a preacher and a Bible teacher.

Have you ever seen a small child in his father's arms? One little hand clutches the lapel of his father's jacket while his head is pressed against that strong, protective chest. Pressures and tensions may be all around, but the child is not threatened. His face registers total security. He is where he belongs—in his Daddy's arms.

God designed human nature so that every baby born into the world would crave this kind of security. A child can never truly be satisfied, fulfilled, or secure without parental love, particularly love from a father. Any person who has been deprived of this kind of love is inevitably exposed to the wound of rejection. Almost an entire generation of American fathers have failed their children. Thus, we have a generation of young people whose deepest, most basic problem is rejection.