 Good morning and welcome once again. Let's pray and let's get started with our class for this morning. Could somebody from our online batch open it out for us with a word of prayer? Lord and Master, we give you thanks and adoration this morning. We commit today's activity into your mighty hands that you give us insight and understanding in whatever we are going to learn in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Thank you, Kofi for leading us. So a quick look at what we had done in the last class. We talked about the origin of Satan and his demons. Sorry, we understood that Satan is a created being. He's one of the angels who was with God in heaven and there was a rebellion. He took one third of the angels and he was thrown out of heaven. So that's exactly what happened. We looked at his nature. We looked at how God created him and we saw that he was created perfect with many abilities. We saw that he had beauty, wisdom, wealth, music. He was anointed. He was able to do business and rule over the nations. So he was created with incredible ability. But unfortunately, it all got corrupted and why did it get corrupted? What was that one thing that pride? Yeah, pride. We talked about pride. We talked about how pride always leads to deception and when one has pride, they can go into self-deception, which is a very dangerous thing and that's what happened to Satan. He became so proud that he thought he can become greater than God. We all know that's not possible, but he has deceived himself. There's a corruption that happens when we are in pride. So that is what happened to Satan and we know that he continues to be here on earth and you know, sort of affect people, interfere with the affairs of mankind and the way God has created this world perfectly. So that's what we had discussed in the last class. Let's look at this last section once more of chapter 3, where it says Lucifer's Fall. We've touched on most of the insights here, the fact that Lucifer's rebellion resulted in the corruption of all things that were in him. Then we saw that there were certain events that took place in heaven, one of which was to shun him out of heaven. Then we also saw how he gained rulership of the earth. So how did he gain rulership of the earth? Was the rulership of the earth given to Satan? Was that how God designed this earth? No. But sin is what caused the shift, isn't it? So God intended for man to have the rulership but when man sinned, the rulership shifted to Satan. That's what happened. Then here another point which we have here is that we must not treat Satan lightly. So that point I didn't touch. I just wanted to talk a little bit about it. In the book of Jude, there's only one chapter verse 9, it says that we cannot just rebuke Satan or in the sense that of course we have authority to do it but there is a right way of going about it. You can't just speak sort of, what can I say, derogatory things or whatever you feel like to Satan because he's already defeated, we know that. But then we go ahead and we just speak whatever we want. We can't do that. Jude 1 verse 9, could somebody please turn to it? If you're there, read it out. That will clarify many things for us. Jude 1 verse 9, but when the Archangel Mikhail contending with the devil was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment but said the Lord rebuke you. Okay, so you see that even when there was a fight, like an angelic battle that's going on, Michael does not use blasphemous language or language which is not permitted against Satan because in what God has created, there are many authority structures and authority flows in a certain way. So there are things that we can do with our authority but then there are things that we are not permitted to do. So in this case, even an angel like Michael is not using blasphemous language against Satan. So what we are basically saying is we can use our full authority against Satan. But if we just want to speak blasphemously or take Satan lightly, that would be wrong. We have to function within the given authority that we have. Okay, so something like I'll just give you one example. If I say, okay, Satan, you know, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus, I command you to leave or not cause this disruption. That would be okay because the Bible tells us Jesus has given us that authority. So that's fine. But if I say things like, you know, I am tying you up and I'm throwing you into hell and all. The thing is, like technically, God will do it at the right time. I cannot do that. I don't have the authority to do that. So things like that, those are all, we need to be aware how far our authority goes. So to cast out the devil, to bind the devil is okay. But for me to condemn the devil and send him to the lake of fire, I don't have that authority. Only God has that authority and there is a timeline. You got it. So there are things like that. I just gave you a very simple example for you to understand. But if we do anything outside of our authority, first of all, it may not work. Secondly, it may not be right. So remember that. Can't just take Satan very lightly in that sense. I hope it is clear. If there are any questions, you can please ask. Yes, Shani, just give me a moment. Yes, please, Shani, you can go ahead now. Thanks to my audience. I was just trying to figure out what page you read in the PDF. It's page 17. Okay, so just a moment. Yeah, I am just moving to page 17. So it should be there. Did you find it? Okay, so you just finished up 16. Now you're starting 17. Yes. So, yes, I was talking about chapter 2 and we are just going into chapter 3. Sorry if there was any confusion about that. Maybe I said chapter 3. Yeah, that's all right. Okay. All right. Yes, ma'am. I would like to know. So in case we are praying, can we also bind the devil? Because the Bible says God has given us the power to bind and lose. Can we do that? Yes. So, yes, Kofi, I think that would be appropriate because we have the authority to bind and lose. And when we are saying we bind you Satan, we mean that we are binding what he is doing. So if that is strife or if there is anxiety, confusion, hatred, whatever it is that the enemy is causing, we are binding that. So it should be fine. It should be fine. So I know people say things like I bind you Satan. What they mean is they're binding the activity of Satan, which is actually okay. Because in a sense, they mean they're binding the activity. Is that okay? Is that fine? Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Yes. I know people say those things burn you with the fire that comes from heaven. Okay. See, we do have, we do carry authority to bind him or to stop him in other words. Right. So this thing about fire from heaven, I don't, I don't see any scripture for that. But I understand what they're trying to say. They're basically saying we are stopping you. And then they're using, you know, the fire of heaven as that, that entity or that substance. Okay. So in essence, they are correct. Yeah. But technically, I don't know. I don't know about any fire like that. But you see the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. When we talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit, we know that he manifests in many ways. So when you go back to the time of Moses leading the people, a pillar of fire by night, cloud by day, the presence of God can manifest as fire. So if someone is saying, Satan, we are stopping you like the fire of God is coming upon this person or on Satan. In a way, it's, it's okay because they're talking about the presence of God taking charge of the situation. So yeah, specifically, I know, I know, I know. So it may refer to the presence of God. So it should be fine. Okay. Okay. That's a good question. So the question is, can we engage an angel like Michael, maybe to come and sort of battle it out with the demons? Okay. So this again, we don't have the authority to command angels. So that's what I'm trying to tell us. We can, like, they can work for us, but not by us telling them what to do, because they won't listen to us. You know, it's like an hierarchy or an army structure. So just take, for example, an army, anyone cannot command anyone. They have a proper order in which the authority flows. So only that officer can command the subordinate officer. Okay. That's how it works. So if anyone says, okay, you go do this, they won't do it because you're not, you don't have the authority to speak to them. So in the same way, when it comes to angels, right, they will not listen to us if we command them. So how will they listen to us? Psalm 103 verse 20. Okay. You can just go to Psalm 103 and verse 20. You have someone's there. Please read. Should I read, ma'am? Yes, Nelson. Psalm 103 verse 20, bless the Lord, O you, His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His word. Okay, so here is the key. How do the angels do something or how some people like to use the word activate? You know, how do the angels get activated? The key lies here. It simply says the latter part of the scripture who do His word. So if His word is there, or if God says something, then the angels will do it. If we say something, they won't do it unless we are declaring the word. So when I make declarations, for example, you know, I think Psalm 34 says the angel of the Lord and camps around those who fear Him. Then what happens? I'm speaking the word of God. The angel then has to take action because what does that scripture say? It says that the angel will protect God's people. Okay, so they'll only respond to the voice of God. You see that last section there, heeding the voice of His word. So they will only listen to the command of God and the voice of God, the word of God. So if I want angels to do something, right, for example, in your situation, I have to declare the word. So when I declare the word, they will do it. But if I put it as I command you, Michael, you know, I command you, Gabriel, you know, go give this message to someone. They'll be like, please, we don't want to listen to you because they'll only listen to God's voice. But you declare the word, they have to listen. So that's the way to, you know, have angels work on our behalf, angels battle or engage angels or some want to call it activate angels declaration. And we declare the word angels will go to work. That's how it is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's not a command. No kill. It's just like an exhortation, which is fine. Yeah, a command. We are not authorized to do that. Okay. Um, yes, there are some. Yeah. In Daniel's case. Right. Correct. Correct. Yes. Yes. Okay. So that's another point. See, we were asking about how to engage angels. The way to engage angels is they receive a command from God. Okay. And when God says they do it, that is why when we declare the word, they will do it because it's God's word. Got it. But in the case of Daniel, God commanded the angel Michael to go in war like the Prince of Persia, the Prince of Greece. What, what is the Prince of Persia and Prince of Greece? Remember last class we said that Satan likes to imitate. So when there are kingdoms of the earth, he likes to have parallel kingdoms, parallel demonic kingdoms. Okay. And our understanding is that they were regional principalities. So Prince of Persia means a demonic authority over Persia. A demonic authority over Greece. So these demons stopped the answer. Uh, God already gave the answer, but the answer did not reach Daniel. But when Daniel prayed, now here is another key, right? So when we pray, God works on our behalf. So what might have happened? Daniel prayed and you know, God sent Michael and Michael fought the demonic principalities and the answer actually came through. So prayer also will cause things to shift in the spiritual realm. Okay. But how did Michael go there? Obviously Daniel didn't command. He prayed and our understanding is God would have kind of, you know, set that up and then he goes in action, receives the victory and then the answer comes. Okay. So Nelson, did I answer your question? Yeah, fine. Good questions here about how to activate angels. Okay. Now let's move on to chapter three. We understood the origin of Satan. Where did Satan come from? And I want to share once again that in the scriptures, we are informed about many things, right? Like even about Satan and how he was in the presence of God and he was a very anointed cherub. All those things are given in the scriptures and that is why we can clearly present details about Satan. But there are many details for whatever reason God did not find it necessary to put it in the scriptures for us. So one word that I want to share right now is to not be overly interested in those missing sections because it happens to a lot of people. They want to know about the world between Satan's casting out and the creation of the earth. Like what happened? Right? Curiosity. Even we would love to know what was going on. What was Satan doing? What were his plans and how was he kind of building up his steam? These are all questions that we may have but you see the scriptures don't present any clear answers to these questions. So when teachings come up about these matters, people are writing books and sometimes it's termed as the pre-ademic world, pre-ademic world. But there's no such reference in scripture, in the canon of scripture. So my word of caution is when we become overly interested on matters that don't have strong scriptural foundation or proof, it can lead us into error. So it's okay to have interest, it's okay to ask questions but we must settle it in our hearts that we don't have the actual answers. So if we go researching the pre-ademic world, people can come up with all kinds of concepts. They might say there are aliens and that they are the ones who are this and that and so many philosophies. But what is the scriptural basis for these things? Not enough. One standalone scripture here, one standalone scripture in Genesis, you know, Noah, the sons of God, the son of that. So let's not make a theory or a doctrine out of one or two scriptures, very, very dangerous, misleading the people. It's good to rest our faith on the strong foundation of scripture. For example, if you take faith itself, right, faith, you have hundreds of passages that talk about what is faith, you know, and it gives us deeper and deeper revelation. People have been talking about faith for so many years but it's still not over. We can keep going deeper because there is so much that God has spoken about that matter. But then there are some matters that God has chosen not to go into. Maybe it's not all that important. So have interest but don't become overly interested. Origin of Satan, this, you know, like exactly what happened and what were they using, what was their transport. It's really not necessary. So we whatever we learned so far is what we have available in scripture. And yeah, we would stop with that regarding the origin of Satan. So now coming to the nature of Satan and his demons. We are going to construct this, our understanding of the nature of Satan and demons on the basis of scripture. Okay, so I'll let Shani ask a question because she says she's confused. Oh, sorry, I just wanted, so we're not supposed to say something about the devil. Like you're using the example about, I guess, casting him into the lake, whatever. We can't say, we can't say we're going to do something to the devil that God will do. Is that what you're saying? And if so, why, I mean, why not? And then also I'm confused about commanding angels. I know you say we can't command them, but we can command the word. Can you give me an example? Because I'm not understanding that. Okay, so two questions there, Shani, about one is about, I said that I didn't say you can't bind the devil. We can whatever we are authorized to do, we can. So the scriptures do tell us that we have been given the keys of the kingdom to bind and to lose. So that we can do. But what I said is sometimes people take it a step further and say things that they're not authorized to do. So when we study the scriptures, we know that it is God's work to finally, finally cast Satan into the lake of fire. Now as a believer, if I am saying I am casting you into the lake of fire, right? Or sometimes believers, when they cast out demons, they say, okay, I'm commanding you to go to hell right now. But scripturally, that's not correct because the demons, it's not yet that time. The Bible talks about a time when God will bind the devil, put him into the bottomless pit. And so basically, very simple, Shani, what I'm saying, I'm saying whatever we are authorized to do, we can do. What we are not authorized to do, things like commanding Satan to go into hell. Or we are saying, I am binding you and I'm throwing you into the lake of fire. That's not technically correct. So those kind of things we could avoid. Okay, that was my simple point regarding that. And the second one, I said, we can't command angels, but angels can work for us if you want to put it that way. Because Hebrews chapter one and verse 14, it says that angels are ministering spirits given to the heirs of salvation, meaning the angels are there to help the believer. So they are supposed to help us in different ways. We'll come to their functions later on. But how to get them to work, that's the question. I can't just tell an angel like I can't tell Gabriel, okay, I command you Gabriel, you do this or Michael, you do this. They will not do that work if I command as a believer. They will only respond to the word of the Lord. And so what we should be doing in order to engage angels is to declare the word. So when we declare the word, something as simple as, you know, God's protection. I declare the protection of God over my life. Okay, you can just quote Psalm 91. So the moment you quote Psalm 91, that is enough to activate angels or to engage angels or get them to do their work. So that's the point, Shani, I hope it's clearer now. Yes, it is. Thank you. Yeah, right. Okay. Yes, fine. So chapter three here, we are beginning with a description of demons. Who demons are who are demons? I think the last class we already answered that question. Who are demons? Fallen angels. Correct. Yeah, they are fallen angels. Where do they live? Okay, spirit world, spirit realm. Where do we see them, you know, doing their activity? Where is all their activity focused? Earth. Currently they're very interested in the earth because they want to disrupt people created in God's image. So Matthew chapter 12 gives us some insight into how these demons behave, how these demons operate. Matthew chapter 12 verses 43 to 45. We can read that and then, you know, I'll go ahead and explain further. Are you there already? Okay, go ahead. Nelson's very quick. Say something is already there. Okay, go ahead. Matthew 12, 43 to 45. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house empty, shaped and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself. And they entered and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also, will it be with this evil generation? Okay. So what Jesus is describing here is what happens when a demon spirit is cast out. And did you notice they were saying house, they went back to their house. One demon spirit was cast out. Okay. And it's again in search of a house or a dwelling place. Now this time around after it wanders, it gathers with it seven other more wicked spirits and enters back that same house because it was not occupied. And the condition of that person becomes worse than what it was initially. What is this house body? Yeah, you're right. So we notice that these fallen angels whom we call as demons, they prefer to live in a house. They don't want to be wandering. Why do they wander? Because they want to look for a house or a dwelling place. So another term that is used to describe demons is disembodied spirits. Disembodied spirits because it simply means they are spirits who don't have a body but they keep looking for a body. Got it? They are disembodied spirits who want a body. We saw that very clearly in Matthew chapter 12 and the spirit comes out. Again, it wants to go back when it searches and finds the house empty goes back but takes seven other spirits with it. And if you look at some other passages of scripture, we recognize that this is true. These demon spirits like to occupy bodies. If you go to the passage where Jesus commands the demons, come out of that man, Legion, and they beg Jesus. They say, please let us go into the pigs. So what is happening? They want a body. They're coming out of the body of the man but they are asking to go into the body of some animals. They want a body. That's what their desire is. So then Jesus is okay, fine. You can go and they go and we know what happened, right? Like the pigs go and they drown and there was a big loss for the person who had that set of pigs. So we observe that demon spirits can occupy human bodies or they can occupy animal bodies. So another instance is when you go back to the book of Genesis, okay? Adam and Eve, who came and spoke to Eve, Satan. But how did he come? In the form of serpent. Yeah, in the form of a serpent. So one way of looking at that is that Satan would have occupied that serpent and gone. Spoken to Eve, okay? So demon spirits can occupy human bodies. They can also occupy animals. Can they occupy non-living things or we could term them as inanimate objects. They can, they can. So that is also something that we must be clear about because we read this earlier, right? Remember Deuteronomy 7 when we talked about objects. God said, don't bring that. Don't bring those objects which are dedicated to other gods. Don't bring them with you. One of the reasons is because there can be an influence of demonic spirits on non-living things or inanimate objects. Now, if you go to the example where Paul talks about idols in the book of Corinthians, even there he says that when people sacrifice, do they sacrifice to idols? He says, no, they're actually sacrificing to demons. Okay, then you ask the question, hey, but people are sacrificing to something that they have created. But what does Paul say? It's not that object. There are demons operating out of that object. Okay, so here is our understanding. Demons are fallen angels, disembodied spirits who are always in search of a body. The body can be a human being. It can be animals. It can also be objects. So that's how they function. Now, a couple of other things that we can recognize about them is that they have a proper organized structure. Okay, their kingdom has a proper organized structure or we use the term hierarchy. Erarchy means you have, you know, authority structure and then under that another level of authority under that another level of authority. That is hierarchy. We call that in English. So now, in God's kingdom, we see that God is the ruler. Okay, God is the ruler. He has his angels and then there are people born again believers and there's a certain way in which the kingdom of God functions or the kingdom of light functions. Similarly, we would observe that Satan, you know, Satan loves to imitate nothing original, all copy. Okay, so same thing. He sees structure of God's kingdom. He sees everything is organized. He's taken that and he's transposed it on his own kingdom and that's how he's working. So there is an hierarchy. There's an authority structure and we find that the book of Ephesians, Ephesians 6 verse 12. It says we do not battle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, you know, spirits of wickedness. Just go ahead, read that passage. You'll see some names given there of demonic authority structures. It just doesn't say that, you know, we do not battle against flesh and blood, but against demons. Instead, it brings out some authority structures there. Ephesians 6 and verse 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Okay, thank you Nelson. So there is a list and I think Nelson read it in another version. But in the NKTV version, you'll probably find words like principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, spirits of wickedness. So how do we understand the function of each of these categories? Principalities are chief rulers. They seem to be the primary rulers over a region. Okay, or a certain activity or something evil. So they are the chief rulers. They are known as principalities. So as you know, I like to look at it like it's a prince, right? So they are key rulers in that area. Now you would also notice that there are powers. Okay, powers. Powers are demonic authorities that have delegated power. So it simply means, now if there is a chief ruler, the chief ruler will command or will instruct powers to go do the work. The chief ruler may not go and do everything, but it's like an army again. You think of an army, the commander will give the commands and the people will follow the commands. So there are powers they'll go and they will implement. Then there are rulers of darkness. These are again a set of ruling spirits. They may not be the chief ones, but they are some kind of ruling spirits. Okay, again over regions particularly and there are also known as spirits of wickedness. Another set of demons, spirits of wickedness. So these spirits of wickedness can be understood as spirits that promote all kinds of evil and sinful things. So that is their activity. The interesting thought here is that the demons seem to be very specialized. Okay, one is they have authority structures and they have positions in the demonic kingdom. The next thing is that they are specialized. How do we know that they are specialized? When we hear their names like Prince of Persia, Prince of Greece or when Jesus was casting out demons, spirit of infirmity, foul spirit, spirit of blindness, spirit of muteness. So what do we learn from that? It seems like that spirit has a job and it does its job. They are very specialized. They won't do anything else. You know how when you go to the hospital and you have these specialties, if you want to check your heart, you go to the heart specialist. If you want to check something else, you just go to the ENT. So just for us to understand, it seems like there are demonic spirits that operate only in that activity and they will promote that activity. Okay, so that is also part of their nature. And it seems like they have a personality. Okay, what is a personality? See, personality is to have, how do you say, how do I put this? Like they are their own person. They have certain abilities, their characteristic. They may even have a name. That's why when Jesus is casting out, who are you? We are legion. We are many. So the demon is talking. Demons are talking and they are identifying themselves. Meaning they have a personality. Okay, this is who they are. Got it? So they seem to have personality, their own characteristics and their way or method of working. That's how they are. Okay, so we'll come to all this later. When we are casting out demons, is it helpful to find out which demon is there? Because people do that, right? They ask the question, who are you? And then the demon starts to talk. So it may be so that when we know which demon is operational, we will know better how to cast it out. So to a limited extent, it is okay to find out which demon is actually, has taken charge over that person. Talk about this later. Just trying to learn all the characteristics of that demon, when it came, when it's planning to go. It's also unnecessary. We don't have to get into everything. Just enough that will help. Enough information that will help us to achieve what we want. What do we want? We want the person who is oppressed by the demon to be free. Right? So to that extent, it's okay if we find out, okay, who are you? What are you doing here? Something, when did you come in? It gives us some clues on what we must deal with and then help that person to be free of that demonic spirit. Okay? So we will build on this. So far we've understood that demons are disembodied spirits. They seem to have an hierarchy in their kingdom. They are specialized. And also, they may have names, titles. And they can also be territorial. There's one more point here which says that they are territorial. Territorial simply means localized to a specific area. So as we've been saying, Prince of Persia, Prince of Greece, the name itself suggests which zone they are operating in. Okay? That particular region or communities of people who live there would come under the influence of that local territorial spirit. Okay? Let me pause here and take up questions if any before we stop for a break. Shani, I can see your hand raised. Is it another question? Yeah, I just have a question. I just wanted to find out because I've heard that people said that if you have at the baptism, if you have the Holy Ghost, that demons can't come on you. Like if somebody has demons in their cast out, but then they get the Holy Ghost, more demons cannot come back at them. Is that true? Because I was told that if you have an empty desk, if you don't have the Holy Ghost, demons can keep coming back at you. But if you have the Holy Ghost in you, then they can't. Is that true or not? Okay. So I'll give you a short answer. Even if a believer has the Holy Spirit living in them, they can be demonized. Okay? It's a different term. We're not saying a believer can be demon possessed because they cannot be. They are already possessed by the Holy Spirit. So a believer cannot be demon possessed, but they can be demonized. That means that they can come under a great influence. Of demonic spirits, if they provide an open door for the demonic spirits. Okay? So I would like to leave it at that and then pick it up a little later on. But is that okay? Yes. Did you get that? Yes. Yeah, sure. Okay. Right. So thank you, everyone. Let's go for a break. We'll come back and then we'll pick up from where we stopped. Okay?