Taking The Devil To Court By Marjorie Cole

TAKING THE DEVIL TO COURT INTRODUCTION TAKING THE DEVIL TO COURT Before we can take the devil to court, we need to have a clear understanding of who we are as believers and the crimes he’s committed against us. Our identity includes the right and responsibility to exercise the free will God has given us to make choices. Much of what happens to us is determined by what we believe.

What we believe determines our choices.

Our choices determine what happens to us, and the cycle continues.

Truth, as found in Jesus Christ, is the great liberator that breaks the cycle of bondage and defeat in our lives.

Both God and the devil influence us, but the final choice we make is determined by the one we believe. The devil invades our lives through the breach created by the sins of the generations. He sets up his war room in our souls and begins to manipulate our thoughts and feelings through his lies. His intent is to wrestle away from us our freedoms and intimidates us with fear. He assaults us and works to fragment and divide our minds. He weakens our wills and wraps his lies around our hearts, creating an environment for destruction called strongholds.

Our first and only system of defense, and our strongest protection against the liar and his bondage is the truth. The truth of God’s Word provides the protection and the platform for resisting the devil and taking back what he has stolen from us. The enemy wants me to think I have no choice and that I am hopelessly strapped into a life of loss and futility. I am held captive, programmed by his lies into believing I am who he says “I am”, a prisoner in my own soul. God wants me to be free.

Many of us are struggling just to survive. We are hesitant and fearful, more often the victim then the victor.

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Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and life more abundantly,” (John 10:10).

God wants us to understand that we are more than conquerors. He created us in His image and wants us to live as His sons and daughters, not as the POW’s of Satan. He has given us His grace and good cheer, and encourages us to live in the freedom His truth has provided through the victory of the Cross.

THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME Isaiah prophesying of the Christ in Isaiah 61:1-4 said “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me…to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound,...” Jesus proclaimed this to be the purpose of His coming and initiated His public ministry on earth with the reading of this passage from Isaiah (see Luke 4:18).

The captives, the bound, the brokenhearted, the oppressed, the downcast…are they not everywhere? If we would live in the forest, they are the trees. But have they become so familiar that we no longer see them or have they many that we no longer pity them? When Jesus told us He came to set the captives free, was He talking about a prison house liberation down at the county jail? When He told us He came to heal the brokenhearted, was He speaking about open heart surgery? If we interpret these words on an spiritual level, it is not difficult to understand He is talking about the condition of our souls.

Jesus made it clear that the kingdom which He came to possess, was “within” (Luke 17: 20-21). The contest between God and Satan is for the souls of mankind, is for the kingdom that is held within the hearts and ruled by their affections. The battles between God and His adversary are for the souls of men, fought within the very hearts of those men.

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Isaiah describes those hearts more graphically in Isaiah 42:22 as “... a people robbed and plundered; All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses; They are for prey, and no one delivers; For plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore!’.”

Who will deliver, who will cry for their restoration?

He answers part of that question in Isaiah 61: 4. The Spirit of the Lord God that was upon Christ will raise up “trees of righteousness” who will, in turn, “rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. The “ruined” city needing to be “rebuilt”, the “old ruins” the “desolations of many generations” that God wants to raise up can be seen as legitimately referring to those of the human life as they could be interpreted to be the war-torn kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL The transforming power and truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the scripture He came to fulfill are confirmed in their indisputable power to defeat the Enemy and change lives. The Gospel’s power to heal crosses generational lines, socio-economic systems and cultural barriers. It transcends time and anticipates change. The Word is never old or out dated. If anything is obsolete or out of touch, it is us. Our denominations and religious groupings may be slow in recognizing the paradigm shifts society makes, but the Word of God was there before the trend appeared and will be true long after it is gone. The Word speaks truth to the simplest and the most complex of human needs. The truth needs no defense because it will take care of itself. God’s truth is all the power we need to defeat the demons of Hell, wherever we find them and to take back what they’ve stolen from us. Though it may pose a challenge to our theology, the Word of God is not daunted by what it sees. There is nothing known to or 3

experienced by humankind, be it tragedy, emotional fracturing, or the demonic infestation of the human life that is a mystery to the Omniscient, Almighty God. He has already addressed every human need for freedom and deliverance, every possible bondage, injustice and tragedy, and every demonic attempt to annihilate the human race through the power of His Word, the Truth. We must rest in His Faithfulness and walk in His Truth if we want to get God’s results.

SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATIONS Scriptural principles form the footing and foundation of our legal rights and spiritual authority as believers. They also present the first critical elements in inner healing and deliverance. Before we can defeat the strongman entrenched in the ruined city-soul of our lives we must understand what it is that has given him legal right to be there in the first place.

The concepts and procedures highlighted in the following pages are drawn from God’s Word. They provide the scriptural basis for the strategies for freedom and warfare that are part of the progressive revelation of truth that the Holy Spirit has referred to in Colossians 2:13. He wants our hearts to be encouraged, “being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Many have prayed and labored to blaze the trail in the areas of inner healing, deliverance, and counseling to lead out those held captive by the lies of Satan. Their work and observations are trans-denominational and include a eclectic compilation of efforts ranging from theology to psychology. Though techniques used in deliverance and inner healing display a broad continuum of belief and practice, only those that are based in the Word of God and 4

led by the Holy Spirit are legitimate. This work is not an exhaustive documentary, but selected documentation of the profound and powerful work being done by the Holy Spirit in the area of healing and deliverance, for a few brave and desperate souls who have dared to reject the lie and submit to the Truth.

And though I have worked many years in the field of counseling-psychology and considered the work of others who have given themselves unselfishly to the Lord in pioneering the works of inner healing and deliverance, this book is intentionally laid on the foundation of principles found in God’s Word. True and lasting freedom and healing, in both emotional and physical areas, are the manifested fruit of applying the scriptural principles of deliverance, spiritual warfare, authority, and inner healing to the strongholds and wounded lives of those ravaged by the Liar.

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