Latter Rain Update - March 1997

SEVEN MEN ATTACKED BY A DEMON

The Seven Sons of Sceva, Itinerant Jewish exorcists, were quite surprised at the response they received when they who took it upon themselves to try to exorcise demons in the name of Jesus, "whom Paul preaches," we read in Acts 19:11-16.

When conversing with the evil spirit (mistake), it stated, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?" Then it attacked the men for daring to come up against it without any authority to, since they weren’t Jesus’ disciples.

The men fled the scene naked and wounded from the encounter.

Demons are stronger than we are because they are celestial beings. They are "glorious ones" and, regardless of their fall, they have not changed in glory. This is why in Ezekiel 28:11-19 God calls Lucifer the Anointed Cherub Who Covers (present tense). "The gifts and callings of God are irrevocable," Romans 11:29 states. So if people come up against them with no authority to do so, they will not tolerate that. These men found this out. They dared to speak against these dignitaries, and they are as those spoken of in Jude 8.

God has given us a mechanism by which we may defeat the demonic hoard - the name of Jesus. Because of Jesus’ obedience to the point of death, he was given a name far above all names and authority by His resurrection (Ephesians 2:5-11). Then God gave us, Jesus’ body, authorization to use His name to defeat the devil. It is a celestial connection greater than Lucifer’s. This authority is limited to us, however, in use in our own lives and in the lives of our families.

WAS IT GOD’S WILL THAT PAUL BE IMPRISONED?

In Acts 21:4, the disciples at Tyre warned Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem, but Paul would not listen. The Holy Spirit also warned Paul a second time in verse 11 not to go, and again Paul refused to accept this. It is commendable to be bound for the Lord Jesus (as he declared he was willing to to be in Acts 21:13) but in this case, it was not necessary.

So why didn’t God want Paul to go to Jerusalem?

God knew that Paul would secum to political correctness due to pressure from the Jewish brethren. This is why He warned Paul through numerous ways not to go. God was right (as always). Paul was brought to task because it was told that he taught all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses by not circumcising their children nor walking according to the customs. At Acts 21:22-25 Paul should have refuted them to tell them that the law could not justify them, but the blood of Jesus, but he didn’t. They compelled him to purify himself and three other men to prove that he was obedient to the law of Moses. He did that, and he even went to the point of offering animal sacrifice for himself and the men, although Jesus had already come as the final sacrifice.

He acquiesed to them. The result of Paul’s going to Jerusalem apart from the leading of the Holy Spirit was that he was bound and put in chains, and the mob came after him.

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