Free So Much More: Moving Beyond Kingdom Principles to Kingdom Power by Todd Hudson

witnessing Jesus in all His power and authority.
    There is another passage that makes this connection between Jesus taking authority over demons and the reintroduction of the kingdom of God.
Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.” Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
—M ATTHEW 12:22–28
    The religious leaders accused Jesus of driving out demons by demonic power. They said He was working on behalf of Satan’s kingdom. Jesus responded by saying, in effect, “Let’s just think this through rationally. Whether we’re talking about a kingdom, a city, or a household, if it is divided against itself it will not stand.” Jesus is saying it doesn’t make sense to think that He would drive out Satan himself by Satan’s power. What was really going on was a clash of kingdoms. Jesus had come to usher in the kingdom of God and take on the kingdom of Satan, and His authority over demons was proof that this kingdom had come.
    This same power has been delegated to us as believers today. Following Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, the enemy was fully and finally defeated. Jesus stood in front of His disciples and declared, “All power and authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18). The implication was that all the power and authority that had been usurped by the enemy in the garden had been taken back by Jesus. Then He told His disciples to go and do what He had been doing. In other words, “I got back all power and authority. It has been given to Me, and I am conferring this power and authority to you.” He wanted them to go fulfill their original assignment—to live in the kingdom of light and take dominion over the earth and destroy the works of the enemy. In transferring this authority to His followers, Jesus was fulfilling His promise when He said to Peter, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom” (Matt. 16:18–19)
    Notice that Jesus said He has been given all authority, which means Satan has none. Many believers get all nervous about the devil doing this to us or that to us, but Jesus said all authority had been given to Him. That word all is a very interesting word in the original Greek. It means “all”! Satan does have some power but he has no authority. You might wonder why then does Satan still seem to wreak havoc in the world? There are still many evidences of the fall of mankind—things like sickness, disease, and death—in the world. How does this happen and where does he get his authority? The same way he got it in the garden. He talks to us until we come in agreement with him. When we believe his lies we give authority to the liar. It is time for us as believers to stop giving away the authority that Jesus delegated to us. He gave us back the keys of the kingdom and it’s time for us to step into and walk in the kingdom authority He has delegated to us.
    We have already noted that Jesus’ primary assignment was to destroy the works of the devil. But for the first thirty years of Jesus life we have no record of Him doing anything to destroy the works of the devil. It wasn’t until His baptism and filling with Holy Spirit that He became empowered to fulfill this assignment. Then He regularly destroyed the works of the devil by healing the sick,