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62 The Believer's Authority
Jesus replied, ".. .if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God,
then the kingdom of God is come unto you" (v. 28).
We know from the Word that we have spiritual authority,
but we must depend upon the Holy Spirit to help us in
ministering authority. We can't do it by ourselves.
As I mentioned earlier, if the devil attacks me, I have
authority over him, because I have authority over my own life. I
can tell him to leave my house immediately. I also can control
situations as long as people are in my presence.
For example, a pastor friend of mine from Fort Worth,
Texas, once accompanied me to a campmeeting I was to preach
in California. He had suffered from sugar diabetes for many
years and had to test his urine every morning to determine how
much insulin he needed for his daily injection.
Trying to teach him a lesson of faith, I turned to him as we
pulled out of the driveway of his parsonage and I said, "You'll
never register any sugar as long as you're with me."
You see, I could control that disease as long as he was with
me—as long as he was on my premises. But I couldn't control it
when he was away from me. I would have to train him to
exercise spiritual authority for himself.
He looked at me as if he didn't believe me, but he was with
me almost two weeks and he never registered any sugar, even
though he ate pie and cake.
"Now I know I'll register sugar today," he would say. After
testing himself, he'd say, "That beats anything I've ever seen in
my life!" He later told me he was home three days before he
started registering sugar again.
You see, I had claimed authority over that disease. Although
I had control over the unseen force, I didn't have control over the
pastor's will. I could control the unseen force as long as the
pastor was in my presence, and I tried to convince him that he
could exercise the same authority, but he didn't catch on. He
expected the diabetes to return, and it did. It took him five years