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Satan’s Strength
Putting Satan In His Rightful Place
By
Dr. Sunny Bhaskaran, M.D.
Welcome to the “Word In Season” – the ministry of encouragement produced by “By His Stripes” in
Yakima, Washington, USA.
For the past three weeks, we have been on this topic. The first week, we talked
about the believer’s authority and the one Scripture I wanted you to take home was in
Mark, the last chapter, and this is what the Bible says in Mark 16:17, “And these signs
will follow those who believe.” I put that the foundation of the whole ministry of setting
the captives free is based on your faith. Those who believe, these signs will follow.
The devil will attack your faith. He will come and say you are not good enough;
he will come and say you have not prayed enough; he will come and say you are not fair
enough; he will come and say you are not holy enough. But you can just say, “I believe,
and these signs will follow.” Amen?
The second week we dealt on Ephesians, chapter 6, and I termed the message as
“The Devil’s Devices” and we talked about Ephesians 6, “Finally, my brethren, be
strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God
that you may be able to stand. . . ” And we dealt with that little word, “stand” . . .
“stand against the wiles of the devil. . .”
We dealt with 3 things: #1. We said the “. . . wiles of the devil. . .” We talked
about the devil’s devices and we talked about deception. What we have to do is “stand”
and the word “stand” is not a word given to a man dressed like me standing here in the
pulpit, or a friend standing and talking with another. That word means a “warrior, a
soldier, dressed ready for battle,” standing eye-to-eyeball facing the enemy, challenging
him, saying, “Come on, let’s go.” Amen! We can stand against the evil one because we
are in Christ. Hallelujah! It’s not our Bible knowledge that makes us stand against the
evil one (it’s good, though, to have good knowledge of the Bible), but it is because you
are IN Christ – Hallelujah! Amen!
Last week we dealt about the interesting phrase: Jesus said, “The ruler of this
world is coming, but he has nothing in Me.” Hallelujah! We talked about how our life
is hidden with Christ, with God, and satan has no access in your life, in your finances, in
your family – no access! Hallelujah! Glory to God! Praise the Lord! We dealt with that
interesting story in Acts where the people were driving out demons (the sons of Sceva)
from a man and they used the name of Jesus. They said, “In the Name of Jesus who
Paul preaches, I command you to come out. And the devil answered back and said,
‘Jesus I recognize; Paul I know, but who are you?’” That was the question we dealt
with, “Who do you think you are? How do you see yourself?” And that is going to be
vital in the ministry of setting the captives free. Because if you see yourself as an
“overcomer,” you’re coming to tell the devil you are an “overcomer.” If you see
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yourself as a “victor,” you’re going to tell the devil you are a “victor.” If you see
yourself “free in Christ,” you’re going to tell the devil, “devil, I’m free – you can’t touch
me.” But if you don’t see yourself as one of the above, if you see that you are a
weakling, if you see you are a grasshopper, then you are going to tell others you are a
“grasshopper.” It’s going to be very clear. And that is what we dealt with last week.
Today, we are going to deal with a topic that I have been meditating on the past
week. It’s been taking some of my time; this morning the Lord woke me up around 4:30
a.m. I always tell Pastor Sharon that I sleep very well; nobody can wake me up, but if I
do wake up early in the morning, it’s God! So this was one of those “God Days” when I
woke up in the morning and God was just flooding His Word into my mind. So let’s look
quickly in the Scriptures.
Turn to Luke 11:21-22. Verse 21, “And when the strong man, fully armed,
guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.” Let’s pray together as we look to God
for His utterance, for direction and for impartation, Lord, we thank you this morning in
the Name of Jesus. We pray that Your mighty hand will clear our minds and
prepare our hearts to receive the Word. I come against every wile of the evil one
trying to disturb this Bible session; and I come against them in the Mighty Name of
Jesus, we take authority here and we give you the glory. In Jesus’ Name! Amen!
Hallelujah!
Luke 11, verse 21, “And when the strong man, fully armed, guards his own
palace, his goods are in peace.” Verse 22, “But when a stronger than he comes upon
him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armour in which he trusted and
divides his spoils.” The title of my messages is, “Satan’s Strength.” I’m going to start
with a question, “How powerful is satan?” He is powerful; he is limited; he is as
powerful as you let him be; he’s been stripped. At one time he was powerful enough he
took one-third of the angels with him.
I have seen in various Christian circles where I have been ministering setting
captives free for more than 10 years through the grace of God; but I humbly stand before
the presence of God and say that I have developed a special reverence or respect for the
devil. Initially, when I started off as a Christian, I was as arrogant as anybody else, going
after him wherever I could find him; but I soon learned he was powerful. I soon learned
the Bible called him “the strongman;” the “ruler of the world;” “the prince of the power
of air.” I soon learned that Paul says, “we wrestle. . .” The word, “wrestle” in the time
of Paul is not the kind of wrestling we do today – which is protected. The kind of
wrestling Paul was talking about was wrestling unto death: the wrestler would go at the
opponent with one intention – break his neck – no rules, no referee to blow the whistle
and stop the fight – you enter the ring and only one survives.
And who is that going to be – we are! Hallelujah! Glory to God! And that is
what the Scripture talks about. There is a strongman; and when he is armed and ready he
keeps his goods in peace. What are his goods? His goods are the blessings that have
your name on it. His goods are the peace that is due you. But he stole it because he is a
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thief. He comes to steal, to kill, to destroy. These goods are your healing in his palace;
his goods are your joy in his house; his goods are yours and so God says, “It’s time. It’s
time. It’s time to dethrone him!” Hallelujah! And what did Jesus do? He did an
amazing thing. He called Himself, “The Stronger than he.” He called Himself, “The
Stronger than he,” and He said, “when the Stronger than he comes and overpowers him
in the wrestling match . . .” Jesus was saying, “I went at him, I took him down, I tackled
him, I put him down and now I’ve stripped him of his power.” Are you getting it? Now
his palace is open for you to go and take what is yours. Glory to God! But still many
Christians don’t enter it to take it. That’s the irony of things. Can you tell me one reason
that keeps you and me from our blessings? There is one reason and that is “Fear.”
When Jesus stripped the power of the enemy, we can read this in various other
Scriptures, too. We can read in Colossians 2:15, “Having disarmed principalities and
powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them on the cross.”
Hallelujah! The Lord was so clear here. He said He “disarmed.” The word,
“disarmed” in Greek is a unique word: it means not only take the armour off; take the
whole authority off; strip him bare. When the Romans went into battle and defeated the
enemy, they returned home leading the enemy, stripped of their title, power and
garments, walking behind. That is what Paul is saying, picture this: our God has done it
all! Hallelujah! Jesus has done it all! Glory to God! Satan is going to be angry – but
don’t worry; God is stronger than he! Hallelujah! He’s greater!!! Praise the Lord!!!
Turn to another Scripture. This is what the Spirit of the Lord said, He said, “Talk
to my people and talk about satan’s strengths.” And then He said, “Put satan back in his
rightful place; don’t put him too low -- don’t be arrogant against him; don’t put him too
high – and say everywhere satan is and he rules the whole thing. But put him in rightful
place.” Then I asked the Lord, “Lord, what is his rightful place?”
And he showed me a Scripture, Romans 16:20, “And the God of peace will crush
satan under your feet shortly. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.”
And the Lord told me the rightful place of the enemy is “under your feet.” Hallelujah!
Recognize that, my dear brothers, you are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms and
all the authority of satan is “under your feet.” Hallelujah!!! Yes, he is powerful, but our
God is stronger than he! Yes he is mighty, but our God is almighty! Yes he is cunning
and he is crafty, but our God is a God of absolute wisdom. Glory to God! So the
rightful place of satan is “under your feet.” Look at your feet and say, “You are under
my feet, satan.” Hallelujah! That doesn’t mean arrogance; that doesn’t mean you can do
anything against him: no, what it means that you are proclaiming who you are in Christ!!
Hallelujah! The God of Peace will crush satan under your feet. There is a little word
that follows “under you feet” that I want you to focus on is “shortly.” The rightful place
of satan is “under you feet” -- but yet, he is not there now.
What is the strength of satan? I was in India and I have been giving a lot of
examples of what the Lord has been doing in the ministry in the past. He is doing great
things currently. He is setting people free. Ever since we have started talking about it,
people have been calling and saying, “Can you pray for me -- I think there is some kind
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of witchcraft?” “Can you pray for me -- I think it is a work of the enemy?” I said,
“Woe, what is going on?” People are just agreeing and understanding more of how the
devil, the enemy, is working in their lives. I was working with these people in one of the
little villages in India. We were praying for people in this little church. There was a little
girl, maybe 9 or 10 years old, possessed with a demon. I was so heartbroken to see how
the power of darkness was tormenting her. The Bible talks about it. How the power will
throw them into a fire; into the water. The devil was tormenting this little girl. I started
praying for her and the devil started to torment more. I said, “No, I’m not going to pray
for her.” We had kept praying and praying, and nothing happened: the devil didn’t
come out. I was surprised and said, “Who brought this girl here? Is the Mom here?”
And this lady came up, and said, “No, this is my neighbor’s daughter. I just invited her
to the church.” And so she was here in the church; and then I asked the Lord for
discernment.
When you are ministering to people who are captives and you go in the Name of
Jesus wanting to see them set free and it is not happening, step back and ask God for
discernment. I asked the Lord, “Lord, help to understand what is going on?” And the
Lord took me to the Scripture. Turn with me 1 Corinthians 15:55-56; verse 55, “Oh,
death, where is your sting? Oh, Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is
sin; and the strength of sin is the Law.” I couldn’t understand one bit of it. I asked the
Lord again, “Lord, what is this, help me understand?” The Lord told me this that the
strength of these demons, if the demons are not obeying you, is because of the sins of
their father. That put a new perspective on the whole thing. What you said is absolutely
right. The strength of satan is the strength that you give satan because satan’s strength is
stripped clean. But when you give him strength, he does operate.
How can you give him strength? Number One: Sinning against God. This little
girl was there and the Lord was saying not to pray for her. He was not going to set her
free. He wanted me to talk to her mother and father. Then I told the people there that I
was not going to leave this place. I needed to speak to the mother and father. (It’s very
interesting -- in India you can do whatever you want to do.) The people then went home
to find the parents. The father and mother were there; the father in the field. They ran
and brought both parents to the church. The little girl was in a trance; making all sorts of
noise and being tormented. Then we talked to the parents about the Gospel of Jesus. We
told them that if they wanted their child to be free from the power of the enemy, they had
to step into the Kingdom. They didn’t understand what I meant. Then I talked to them
about the power of their gods on their child. Then they understood. They knew it was
their gods who was causing the problem in the child. The child was having chronic
sicknesses; chronic fits of epilepsy; she was having all kinds of problems. So we led the
father, then the mother to the Lord. They repented and they asked God for forgiveness.
Then I just turned around to the little girl who was behind me: The devil said, “My time
is up; I have to go.” I didn’t even say a command; he stepped out and set that little girl
free. Why? Because the power of satan was removed by the blood of Jesus! Hallelujah!
What is the power of satan? The power of satan is what you give satan to rule.
Number one is sin. The sting of death is sin. Number Two: let’s turn to 2 Corinthians
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10. In the next few minutes, I will try to help you (and me) understand the uniqueness of
this Scripture: a Scripture you have read probably many times. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5,
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.” Yes, we walk
in the world, but we do not war as the world wars. We do not use an AK-47. We do not
use guns; we do not use bullets; we do not use the weaponry of the world. Why?
Because we have weaponry which is far more powerful; penetrates much deeper. Paul
goes on to say, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for
pulling down strongholds.” He’s introducing us to a new word, “strongholds.” Now,
what does stronghold mean? Fortress; barrier; strength; or stonewalls. Why do you
build a fortress? To protect something, someone or to keep people out. Now the actual
word’s meaning is: a safe place. Stronghold means a safe place.
I was mediating at length on this word, and I asked the Lord a question, “Lord,
who builds this stronghold?” The translation is “devil’s stronghold.” Who builds it?
Does the devil build it? This is interesting insight that the Lord gave to me. He told me,
the stronghold is not built by the devil. It is built by the individual. It is built by the
person. Why do they build it? To protect themselves from their enemies. To hide and
go into a place where they can be safe. Everyone has a stronghold. Are you getting the
point?
Turn to Judges 6: