Audio Download

5: Events That Typify How We Must Come Out of Exile by God’s Power

[Study Aired October 10, 2024]

This section of our study is really the most open-ended in my mind, because we can talk about any miracle of Christ and see it as a deliverance from the exile from evil spirits that God sends (1Sa 16:15). The world does not understand that God sends evil spirits, controlling the light and darkness and working all things according to the counsel of His own will (Isa 45:7 , Eph 1:11-12).

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Without the faith to see and believe this, we will be deprived of knowing how great God’s purpose is within all of those situations of spiritual bondage that He causes so that He can then deliver the person, or persons from it. What we are told is that all of those typical miracles of Christ represent the greater works of conversion that God will manifest through the saints, both in this age and in ages to come, and is the reason Christ told his disciples that they would do greater works than these (Joh 14:12); greater works than Christ who did not convert a single soul during his ministry, knowing that this time of conversion would only begin with the church on the day of Pentecost.

Joh 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Here are some events that stand out in regards to how God created situations that had us in a bondage, representing sin at an appointed time in our life, and created to the glory of God who would deliver that person or persons from that bondage.

The first verses we will consider are in chapter 9 of the book of John, which hold the principle that is true for all captivity that happens in the flesh of mankind, where we read of ‘a blind man from birth’, representing spiritual blindness that was taken away, but not before Christ explained why it was there in the first place (Joh 9:1-5).

Joh 9:1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
Joh 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Joh 9:3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Joh 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Joh 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

Restoring physical sight, healing the lame, or curing any and all illness, is a matter of sweeping the house clean, “he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished”(Mat 12:44), by gaining dominion over that spirit, which healing does occur in Babylon. This is from where God’s elect are called out of in order to do greater miracles, ‘greater works than these’ (Rev 13:13 , Joh 14:12). Those greater works are speaking of being able to give spiritual eyesight to those that God drags to the body of Christ, along with spiritual hearing that is the greater miracle granted to the elect of God (Mat 13:16).

Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

This initial dominion that God grants us over our flesh is for the period of time that He has ordained and is preceded by “seven other spirits more wicked than himself”. The first works, or cleansing of the ‘wood, hay and stubble’, are the events that God uses to seek an occasion against us with seven spirits worse. The number ‘seven’ demonstrates the complete bondage an overcomer of ‘wood, hay and stubble’ has when they cannot give all glory to God for that which He has worked in our lives, freeing us from the ‘wood hay and stubble’ (1Co 4:7). It is then, if God is working with us as His elect (Rev 18:4), that those “seven other spirits more wicked than himself” will bring us into a captivity, or place of deeper and more complete exile into sin, which only by God’s grace will be overcome. This parable, in Matthew chapter twelve, is really telling us how we must ‘lose our first love’ and then go into a place of complete captivity in order, Lord willing, to be received of our Father through his chastening grace upon our old man of perdition that must be destroyed in order for us to give all glory to God for all things, light and darkness, peace and evil (Mat 12:43-45 , Tit 2:11-12 , Rev 15:8 , Heb 12:6 , Php 2:12-13).

Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Mat 12:44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
Mat 12:45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

Being a disciple of Christ by believing on him and overcoming any number of vices, is just the beginning of our coming out of exile. It is the “disciple indeed” who is crushed under the stone having all those ‘seven spirits worse’ cast from us and destroyed, through a life-long process of overcoming that complete bondage to sin, especially the sin of self righteousness that will abound more and more at the end of the age (Rev 17:11 , Mat 24:12).

Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

Just how wicked is that man of perdition that God plans to destroy with the brightness of his coming? I would say these verses, (2Th 2:2-10), appropriately describe our deepest and darkest place of exile, and none of us were even aware that we were there until the Son of righteousness came into our heavens and began the process of taking us out of our spiritual exile, delivering us from Satan’s spirit that operates mightily in the harlot churches of this world (Rev 17:5). We are humbled to our core as we come to see how enslaved we were to that harlot system and now must go through a process of fiery judgement (1Pe 4:12 , 1Pe 4:17 , Act 14:22) in order to learn of the patience and faith of the saints (Rev 14:12), as we are grafted into the body of Christ, ‘possessing our souls patiently’, which is only possible through Christ (Mat 24:1-51 , Rev 14:1-12).

2Th 2:2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

As stated to the 70 disciples that Christ gave dominion over spirits, just like sweeping a house clean of an evil spirit, this is not conversion but a starting point that will result in seven spirits worse coming back to that swept and clean house to completely [7] dominate that life that was ‘cleansed’ of the “wood, hay and stubble”.

Luk 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
Luk 10:18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven
Luk 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Luk 10:20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

A worse thing does come upon us after we initially repent of our ‘wood, hay and stubble sins’ overcome in Babylon, all by God’s design (1Cor 3:12-15). That worse thing, if God is going to cleanse us in this life, is self-righteousness represented by cankered “gold, silver, precious stones”, wrapping Truth around the idols of our hearts which must needs be purified in this life if we are going to be His jewels that are being judged and prepared in this age (Mal 3:1-3 , Mal 3:17).

1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Mal 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
Mal 3:2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
Mal 3:3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Mal 3:17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

That ‘something’ that comes upon us [seven spirits worse] is the harder and more deceitful and undetected sin of self-righteousness, represented by seven spirits worse that come back, with the one spirit glorying in the things that God has done in our lives [victory over wood, hay and stubble], as if we had done them (1Co 4:7-10). That spirit which does not acknowledge God’s complete sovereignty in our lives is the one that must be destroyed, and will be in this age if God is judging us in this age.

1Co 4:7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?
1Co 4:8 Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you.
1Co 4:9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.
1Co 4:10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.
1Co 4:11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace;
1Co 4:12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:
1Co 4:13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

What Christ directed his disciples to rejoice in was not in having power over these spirits (Luk 10:17-20). Babylon can have dominion over this as well, which creates strong delusion in the earth. No, it was the fact that their names were written in heaven, and as such they would, in time, once the holy spirit was given on Pentecost, have dominion over Satan whom Christ in this parable said he ‘beheld him fall from heaven like lightning’, foreshadowing what He was going to do in their minds by the power of God’s spirit dwelling within them (Luk 10:17-20 , Col 1:27).

Luk 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
Luk 10:18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven
Luk 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Luk 10:20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

“Your names are written in heaven”, our heavens, the elect’s heavens who, like the other parable of the seven spirits worse taking over the swept and cleaned house, are blessed to have a stronger man come in after this event and bind those seven other spirits completely, because our names our written in heaven and Christ who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.

What is in the world is sin, and that sin is something we will need to overcome the rest of our lives by dying daily, and if Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, He is writing our books to that end that we will be more than conquerors through him, the fit man in the wilderness, who can direct the scapegoat as we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is Christ who is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Php 2:12-13). This bondage to sin and the deliverance from it is a little and by little process (Exo 23:30) that God has called us unto. It is continually being demonstrated for us throughout God’s word and in the lives of those who are God’s workmanship being brought unto perfection on the third day (Luk 13:32).

Exo 23:30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

Luk 13:32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.