Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven. Behold I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:17-20 When I was in late middle school or Jr. High, Billy Graham held a crusade in Delta Colorado, the town we were living in. Before he came, he sent instructions to the churches in the town on how to start the revival before he came. The churches worked together and shared the news about the crusade to everyone in town. There was great excitement in our church as we anticipated what God was going to do through Billy Graham. I honestly do not remember if the Christians went door to door or not, but I remember our football stadium was standing room only, and after the message, people lined up all across the sidelines of the football field to give their life to Jesus. The success and excitement of the crusade lasted long after the Billy Graham left town. He modeled his crusades much like Jesus did when he sent the seventy out to go before Him and start preparing the hearts of the people for Jesus’ teaching and miracles. In Luke 10, Jesus appointed seventy believers and sent them out two by two to go into every place He was about to go and start preaching that the Kingdom of God is at hand and to heal the sick. They were instructed not to take provisions, allowing the house that would welcome provide for them, because the “Laborer is worthy of their hire.” (I wonder how many things God has called us to do and we do not accomplish the task because we are too worried about how we will fund the task God has called us for.) As they went to each city, they were to go door to door and the house that accepted them with peace, Jesus instructed them to remain there and the people in the home would provide a place for them to stay and food to eat. While they were there, they were to heal the sick and teach the Kingdom of God has come to you. Can you imagine their excitement that the wonderful salvations and miracles they had seen Jesus do, they were commissioned to do. They were ecstatic that the demons were even subject to them when they commanded them in the name of Jesus. I can just imagine the bubbling conversations and perhaps they were even so excited that they interrupted each other or talking louder and louder talking over each other to be heard. I wonder what reaction they expected form Jesus, perhaps they thought He would say “great job,” or “it is amazing to see people healed and delivered,” or in ‘West Texas slang something like, “I know it is so cool to hear those demons talk and watch the people when they ae delivered.” Of course, the Bible does not record any conversations like that, instead Jesus acted like it was no big deal, “Oh yeah, I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.” To me His response kind of sounded nonchalant,” it is no big deal, he is already defeated, I watched Satan get kicked out of heaven.” Then Jesus said, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Right before Jesus went back to heaven, he was sitting at a table with the eleven disciples and He made a similar statement. “And He said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And these signs will follow those who believe; in My name, they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will take up serpents and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.” Mark 16:16-17 The way Jesus speaks in both of these passages, it sounds like healing, deliverance and speaking in tongues should “be natural and a way of life” for the believer. In my own prayer life and praying for people, there has been some definite miracles and healings, but to be honest, not everyone I have prayed for have received their miracle. I wonder how Jesus would answer if I asked Him, why there are some people who have not received their healing after I prayed for them. When you go back to Mark 16:14, Jesus “rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart.” Perhaps we will only fulfill the great commission if we have no unbelief and our hearts are softened to God and the Holy Spirit. When our children were young, I taught at Levelland Christian School and one time in staff, Jill Roberts brought up a concept I had not thought about. She said the reason the New Testament Church walked in such power and authority is because they not only walked the fear of the Lord, but experienced the grace and love of Jesus. I believe in the Modern American Church (and even in my own life) most of us walk in the grace Jesus provided, but do not fear the Lord anymore. We have allowed sin to creep into our hearts and consume our lives. While I do not believe that any of those who read this are living ins blatant sin, but there are beliefs and attitudes we have embraced that are not pleasing to God. Take unbelief for example, I heard the story of a very successful business man who took some clients out to dinner n a high-end restaurant and as they walked in, he stopped and picked up a penny n the ground and just stared at it so long that the guest began to feel uncomfortable. During dinner, the woman could not stand the suspense any longer an she asked the rich man while he picked up the penny and stared at it so long. The rich man replied that he had gone through a very difficult financial season years before and left work in frustration to get coffee. As he entered the coffee shop, he found a penny and the Lord told him to pick it up. He picked it up wondering what a penny would do for him and the Lord asked him what it said. Finally, he realized what God was telling him. It said “In God we trust.” God asked him, do you trust Me? He had to take a hard look at his belief system and realized he said “In God we trust,” but he really did not trust God. Like many of us, he had given a part of his heart to unbelief. I heard John Bevere say recently that years ago He asked God why he was not seeing people come to Jesus for salvation or get their healing even though he was spending 2 hours every day in prayer. God told him, that he had tolerated sin in his own life and in the life of his church members. This morning, I heard David Wilkerson preaching about consecration and holiness. I have had several conversations with God in the last several weeks, asking Him to show me any and every sin I have tolerated and allowed to have a foot hold in my life. I do not want anything to come between me and God and I want to fulfill all the plans He has for me. When I first started examining my lie, my first response was to go over the ten commandments and quickly say I was not committing any of them. Then I began to think about emotions that would be unpleasing to God. Here is a list I found in several bible verses: anger, pride, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, unthankful, unholy, ungodly, and then I got to Revelations 21:8 “but the fearful, unbelieving, the abominable, the cowardly” really made me to start to think. How many of these things have we done or tolerated in the last few weeks? Maybe they are not our normal attitudes, but we tolerated being mad at someone for several days, or we struggle believing every promise in the bible. Or we talked about someone else in a bad way. How many times do we watch the news and allow fear to creep in? Are we afraid of the economy cris or the next pandemic (we know waitresses who still wear a mask since COVID.) We cannot give the devil any foot hold. Jesus dealt with the disciples’ unbelief before He gave them their authority. I wonder if we would win our world for Jesus quicker if we were serious about living a sinless life. Romans 6:12 we are admonished “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body.” It has been prophesied the Church is going to walk in greater power than we have ever seen, but it will require a new level of holiness.
Cathy Nesmith