Driving Satan From the Earth

When we think about the Garden of Eden we are amazed. How could Paradise actually have existed on the earth? But it did.

Man permitted Satan to enter. We have had six thousand years of agony as a result.

Now, this is important to understand. Jesus Christ did not appear in order to drive out Satan by Himself, He appeared to enable us to drive Satan out.

This begins with us as an individual. From what I have seen I think some of the believers expect Jesus to do all the work in their salvation. He will never do it. Rather, Jesus guides and empowers us, but we have to do the casting out.

Say you are bound with profanity. The thing to do is to tell Jesus you do not want this in your personality any longer. Renounce profanity. Denounce it. Assign it to the Lake of Fire where it belongs. Get rough with it.

When you take your stand the Lord Jesus will help you. You finally will get totally free from it.

But if you wait for the Lord to remove the profanity without any effort on your part you will be disappointed with the results.

The reason people do not get delivered from alcohol is they do not pray until they really want to get rid of it. Until you really want to get rid of this devil it will remain in you no matter how many times you are prayed for.

And so with all the rest of our worldliness, lust, and self-will. We have to pray and follow the Lord until we are strong enough to make up our mind we are through with the sin. Then the Lord will help us drive it from us.

The same is true of the whole world. The sin will not be removed until the Lord appears with people who really want it removed. Then He will empower them to drive it totally from the earth. These are God's "untouchables." When Satan comes he can find no place in them. You can be one of God's untouchables but you will have to work at it. It is a hard fight.

Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things, says the LORD Almighty. (Malachi 4:3-NIV)

The wicked will be ashes under your feet, not under the Lord's feet but under your feet.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. (Romans 16:20-NIV)

We are the Body of Christ, including the feet of the Body of Christ. The feet burn as bronze in an oven, the bronze of judgment. The Lord will make the place of His feet glorious because they will drive sin from the earth.

We had believed we would never get the final victory over sin while living on the earth, that victory over sin would come about somewhere in Heaven. This is faulty reasoning because sin began in Heaven. Deliverance from sin is not found in Heaven, only in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only as we abandon our earthly life to the cross with Jesus and press into our new life at the right hand of God that we can gain the strength to renounce sin.

Sin is a question of truth and choice. Jesus Christ has all power. To obtain deliverance we must decide this is what we truly, finally want. We can lay hold on enough power to decide what we truly want by going to the Lord constantly for that power. Once we make the decision we do not want to sin, in whatever area we are concentrating on, the Lord will furnish the power to keep us from sinning. He gives us the power to decide, and having made the decision He gives us the power to get rid of the sin. He came to destroy, not forgive, the works of the devil.

Sin has power only as long as we yield to it. Once we can gain the determination to renounce and denounce the sin, the power of the Lord is at hand to destroy the works of the devil.

When the sons of God appear with the Lord they will denounce and renounce all sin. Then it requires only one angel to chain Satan and cast him into the bottomless pit.