Part 1: Our Dominion over Satan

    The reality that Jesus needs a body began dawning in my spirit many years ago when I read about Jesus coming to Kenneth E. Hagin to teach him about the demonic realm.  While Jesus was speaking to Hagin a demon looking like a monkey caused a dark cloud to come between them, so Hagin could no longer see Jesus, but he could hear Him. Next the demon started yelling yakety-yak, yakety-yak in a shrill voice. Now Hagin could no longer see or hear Jesus. He was very disturbed by this, because he was missing what Jesus was saying. He kept wondering why Jesus didn’t do something about this demon. Finally, Hagin had tolerated it as long as he could, and he commanded the demon to be quiet in Jesus’ name. It fell to the floor like a sack of salt and started whining like a whipped pup and shaking all over.

    Hagin could now see and hear Jesus again, and he asked Him why He had not gotten rid of the demon. Jesus replied, “If you hadn’t done something about that, I couldn’t have.” That totally demolished Hagin’s theology on the subject. He told the Lord he must have heard Him wrong, so Jesus repeated His answer. Hagin couldn’t believe the Lord’s statement, so he asked Jesus a third time, “You didn’t say You couldn’t; You said You wouldn’t, didn’t You?”  Jesus replied emphatically, “No, I didn’t say I wouldn’t; I said I couldn’t.” Hagin told the Lord he would not believe that unless He could prove it to him from the Bible. Jesus was happy to comply with that request and pointed out several scriptures.

* One was Matt.28:18 where Jesus in His resurrected form had said, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.”  He told Hagin that power meant authority. He told him not to stop reading there, for the next verse says, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations…” Jesus explained that, by that statement He had delegated His authority on earth to the church. (This makes sense, because He had already told us in Luke 10:19 that we have power over all the power of he enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt us.)

* Jesus also quoted James 4:7,” Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Flee means to run away from a situation as in terror, which shows that you have dominion over the devil.

* “Neither give place to the devil.” (Eph. 4:27) This means don’t let the devil have any place in you; (don’t let him have an opportunity or a foothold), which means you have authority over him.

* Another scripture Jesus quoted was Mark 16:17. “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In My name shall they cast out a devil …” Jesus explained, “That means that in My name they will exercise authority over the devil. I delegated My authority over the devil to the church, and I can work only through the church, for I am the Head of the church.” Note that we are the ones speaking to the devil in the name of Jesus, but the power to enforce our words comes from Jesus within us.  Jesus needs a body.

    In fact, Jesus pointed out that nowhere in the New Testament were we told to pray to God to do anything about the devil.  “To pray against the devil is a waste of time. I’ve done all I’m ever going to do about the devil,” Jesus said. This shocked Hagin who thought about all the time he had wasted in prayer about the devil. We are the ones to whom Jesus has given authority. We are the ones that are designated to rule. In Matt.10:1 and 8 Jesus specifically tells us to “cast out devils”.

    The point we need to see from this is that Jesus specifically said, “If you hadn’t done something about that, I couldn’t have.” Jesus is saying He had no ability to act until Hagin spoke to the demon in His name. The unspoken corollary to that is, “Since you did do something about that, therefore I could do something about it.” Jesus had already told us in Matt.16:19 “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind (lock, forbid) on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose (unlock, permit) on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” As soon as we act on His word, then He moves with His power, accomplishing what we have believed and spoken.

     That leaves no room for doubt that the responsibility for dealing with the demonic on this earth is squarely ours. If we do not dominate the devil in the name of Jesus, he will not be dominated. That is why he has free reign in the lives of so many people including Christians, because they do nothing to stop him. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” (1Peter 5:8) If people are ignorant about the devil, they are easy prey for him. But the next verse says, “Whom resist steadfast in the faith…” You couldn’t resist the devil if you didn’t have authority over him. However, you do have authority over him, so you can and must resist him. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” (Hos.4:6)

    So you see, Jesus needs a body that He can work through, a body that is knowledgeable concerning the demonic. You have to know His word, believe His word, and act on it, in order to be victorious over the devil.

    I want to go back to a statement the Lord made to Hagin, “I’ve done all I’m ever going to do about the devil.” Let’s take a walk through the Bible to see the basis for that statement.

* 1John 3:8 states, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” In this verse God tells us why He sent Jesus to the earth.

* In Heb.2:14 God says, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” Here He tells us that Jesus had to take on flesh like ours in order that, through His death, He could defeat the devil who had the power of death.

* Eph.4:9, 10 tell us that after His crucifixion, Jesus first descended into the lower parts of the earth (hell) before ascending far above all heavens.

 * Col. 2:15 tells us what Jesus did while in hell, “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it (the cross).” Making a show of them openly is like a conqueror that strips the defeated enemies to the waist, chains them all together in a long line, and then parades them through town, humiliating them in view of everyone.

* In Rev. 1:18, Jesus states that He has the keys of hell and the grave. I can just see Him leading the parade of Satan and his defeated devils, holding the keys of hell and death above His head and shaking them with a big smile saying “Look what I have.” All of our enemies are defeated through Christ Jesus and His shed blood. We no longer have to fear death, or any attack of the enemy in life, because we have been given complete dominance over Satan and his imps from hell in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah!

 * After totally defeating Satan, He ascended into heaven “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet…” (Eph.1:21, 22) 

* The good news for us is that God has given us joint seating with Christ (Eph.2:6), which also puts us far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named. If we are assured of that position in our hearts, and function from that stance, the devils tremble when we come on the scene in the name of Jesus. They know that we know who we are in Him.

     So you see, Jesus has done everything He is ever going to do about the devil, just like He told Hagin. Jesus has totally defeated Satan and has passed that dominion on to us. It is now up to us to exercise that dominion that we possess. As we bind the enemy with our words, then the gate is open for the Holy Spirit to flow forth with all the power in the universe and accomplish what we have spoken. Jesus needs a body to speak through. He will do the rest!

    A beautiful example of our dominance over Satan comes from the life of Smith Wigglesworth. A family living 200 miles away from him sent an urgent request for help. Their daughter was possessed by demons, and they were desperate. Wigglesworth came as they requested. He was led down a hallway, and up two flights of stairs arriving at a closed door. The father opened the door and shoved Wigglesworth in, quickly closing the door behind him. In the room was a young, frail girl held down by five men. When she saw Wigglesworth, the power of the demonic forces inside of her enabled her to tear loose from the five men. She lunged forward, glaring at Wigglesworth and saying, “You can’t cast me out.” He answered, “Jesus can, and He is in me.” He remembered the scripture in 1John 4:4 which says, “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” Wigglesworth knew that Christ was in him, so he commanded the demons saying, “Come out in the Name of Jesus.” Immediately thirty-four demons came out, giving their names as they fled away. The girl was instantly in her right mind. She went down the stairs and had dinner with her family.

    The point I want you to see is that Jesus needed the man, Wigglesworth, to speak the command to the demons in His Name. But it was entirely the power of Jesus that made them flee. Jesus is always the One with the power, but He needs a person to speak the commanding words. Jesus needs a body.

    That is the way we should all respond when faced with demons, filled with complete assurance that we have dominion over them in Jesus’ Name. Acts 10:38 comes to my mind, “ How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” “As He is, so are we in this world.” (1John4:17) The same Holy Ghost is in us that was in Jesus, and He wants to do the same things through us that He did through Jesus. All He needs is a yielded body, hopefully like yours.

  Part 2:  Christ in Us

    The second thing that influenced my thinking along these lines was an experience a man named James had. James was carried away by the Spirit to a foreign country. He was placed on a dusty terrain with Jesus by his side. There were people with all kinds of sicknesses and deformities all around them. As they walked along, a crippled, emaciated man with no sign of recognition in his eyes was lying at the feet of Jesus. Suddenly it was as if James was looking thought the eyes of Jesus, and the man was lying at his/Jesus’ feet. It was as if Jesus had stepped into James or vice versa. Jesus was choosing to work through James’ body, but all the power was definitely from the Lord. As James reached out his hand to the crippled man, he noticed it was also the hand of Jesus, like the Lord’s hand was in his hand. Within ten seconds the man was standing before James/Jesus, whole in body and mind, and praising God.

    Each time he reached out to someone in need, it would be his/Jesus’ hand. Phenomenal miracles were taking place. One person had no arms or legs, he only had a torso. As he reached out his/Jesus’ hand, all of the man’s limbs grew out within a few seconds, and he was filled with joy. Another spectacular miracle was when Jesus/James reached out their hand and conjoined twins were instantly separated and ran about with glee. Blind eyes were opened, deaf ears could hear, tumors disappeared, impaired bodies were made whole, any ailment you could think of was cured within fifteen seconds.

     Jesus was then outside James’ body again and standing by his side. He said, “Am I not God? Am I not Creator? Is anything too difficult for Me?” James then found himself back at home with his wife, dusty and exhausted.

    About two years after first reading this, the Spirit pointed out to me that, as all the healing miracles were taking place, Jesus was doing them through James’ body. The two had become one flesh (Eph5:31), but it was James’s flesh and Jesus’ power. Before the healing miracles started, and after they stopped, Jesus was outside James’s body, but while they were happening, Jesus was inside James’s body. In other words, Jesus needed a body to work through. I also realized that Jesus did no healings while in His resurrected body as He had done when He had a physical body before His crucifixion. Apparently He needed a physical body (whether His own or someone else’s) through which to do healing miracles.

 Part 3:   Raised from the dead

    An experience by a woman named Clarice added even more clarity to what I was being shown. She was ministering in a church when the pastor fell dead on the podium. The paramedics came and tried to resuscitate him to no avail. The Lord spoke to Clarice, telling her to raise him from the dead. Her response was, “You go raise him from the dead.” The Lord’s next comment is the thing that solidified my thinking about Jesus needing a body. He said to her, “I can’t go over there. Nothing manifests in this dimension without a body. You take me over there, you just put your hand on him and say, ‘I bind the spirit of death, and I release resurrection life.’” There it was, Jesus Himself saying what I had already come to understand. Jesus needs a body. Thank you Jesus for such a strong confirmation!

     Jesus needed her legs to walk over to the body. He needed her hand to touch the body; He needed her mouth to take authority over death and release life. Jesus could not have done any of those things, because He no longer had a physical body. But when He found a human being that would obey His instructions, then His power could accomplish the resurrection. This is extremely clear to me as I pray it is to you, because He wants to use our bodies to live His life through.

    Clarice went to the dead body, laid her hand on it and began to pray in tongues. Jesus interrupted her and said, “What are you doing?” She told Him she was praying. He said, “I didn’t tell you to do that.” He said that she was being like a car with the gear in park and the motor being raced…she was going nowhere. He reiterated His instruction to her. She then obeyed, went to the body, laid her hand on it, and said,” I bind the spirit of death, and I release resurrection life.” At those words from Clarice’s mouth, the power of God was released, and Jesus raised the pastor from the dead. All He needed was a body willing to obey Him.

    Another important point to see through this example is how specific the command of Jesus was, and any deviation from that command was not only unacceptable, but it also had no effectiveness. We must listen to His words carefully and try our best to do exactly what He tells us to do. He needs a body that carries out His word with precision.