4 Steps to Reclaim Authority from the Devil

God wants you to learn to take authority over anything the devil tries to put on you, over anything that’s not right.

Learn to take authority over things that buffet or oppress you from the outside the very moment you detect them.

If the devil has come to visit you in the form of disease, you can take authority over him (if you’re born again by the Spirit of God). You can pray and believe for your own healing. Don’t put your faith in somebody else; put your faith in the Jesus you read about in the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and be healed.

Be mindful of the fact that you’ve got power and authority over the devil. Jesus gave it to us when we got saved:

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 (Luke 10:19).

Then he [ Jesus] called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases (Luke 9:1).

I’m going to teach you how I stop cancer (or anything else that comes from the devil) dead in its tracks and how you can stop it, too!

“Oh, you mean how God stops cancer,” you may say.

No, I mean how you and I stop it in Jesus’ name. God doesn’t have cancer; He doesn’t have any diseases. People get cancers and diseases, and God has given born-again people the power to stop them. It’s up to us to tell crippled legs, bad hearts, sick bodies, and empty pocketbooks to straighten out!

Make Up Your Mind to Be a Bible Believer

When Jesus gave His disciples the Great Commission of Mark 16:15-18, He mentioned different signs that would follow the believers. In verse 17, the first sign He spoke of was, “In my name shall they cast out devils.” I don’t know why that scared people so.

Some pastors say, “I don’t know about this. I don’t know how to deal with devils. I don’t want to get my people mixed up.”

Casting out devils is a doctrine of the New Testament church. People who ask, “Why do I have to resist the devil? Why do I have to cast out devils?” are people who’ve gotten over into their own realm of thinking. They’ve left the Abraham-kind of faith (Romans 4:16-21), and they’ve left the Jesus-kind of authority.

In 1 Timothy 4:1 the Holy Spirit says:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.

This verse plainly shows that some people will depart from the faith and won’t cast out devils like Jesus commissioned. It’s a seducing spirit that talks you into not having anything to do with casting out devils.

If a devil-possessed person comes to your door and asks you to pray for them, are you ready and willing to say, “Devil, you turn this person loose. I command you in Jesus’ name to come out of them”? Are you willing to let this be a way of life for you?

It’s a part of my lifestyle. I do it all the time, nearly every day. And I know if I don’t get the devil out of the person, it will kill them. Don’t forget, the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). You’ve got to make up your mind that you’re going to be a Bible believer!

If you are a pastor and your congregation has never seen you cast out devils, they’re as confused as you are. All some churches have is a confused congregation. They float in on Sunday morning, then they float out being nice. I’ve got news for you: Jesus isn’t nice to the devil. And He doesn’t want you to be nice to him either. He said to use His name and throw the devil out of the Church!

“Are you kidding, Brother Norvel?” you may say. “Every person in the Church is a victor. They’re all victors all the time.”

That isn’t true. There’s total victory in the Church only as long as you don’t let religious spirits, devils, and your goofed-up friends invade the place. God doesn’t want His Church to be invaded by the religious ideas of men. He wants you to stand boldly and throw the devil out. Take authority over the devil, cast him out, and get people healed.

Let Jesus Be Like He Is in the Gospels

On my way to Honolulu several months ago, the Lord said to me, Son, start teaching the Word only. Forget about everything else. Forget it and get it out of your mind. Be free from everything else. He told me to be free from what my friends or what other church members believed.

Some people have an image of Jesus being like their church service. Realize this: Jesus doesn’t go by church services! The services of every church in America are supposed to go by Him.

Jesus is the Head of the Church. Jesus is the Great Shepherd. We’re supposed to listen to Jesus and not try to change Him. Jesus, today, is exactly what He is in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He has never changed, and He’s not going to change. Oh, God, help us keep our minds under subjection, so that we can leave Jesus alone, and let Him be to us like He is in the Gospels. That’s the Jesus we want. He knows how to do everything! He has paid the price for everything! Know this: Jesus loves us. That means you and me!

If you’ll make up your mind once and for all that the life is in the Word, you won’t have to suffer any longer. The light of God shines down through the Word of God. God doesn’t have any shadows. The light is in the Word. What you do with the Word is up to you.

Remember, the Holy Spirit performs God’s Word, and the beautiful part of the Holy Spirit is that He performs it for you! He’ll perform it all the time, for the rest of your life. Anything scriptural that you want, He’ll give you.

Learn to put the gospel first and stop putting your own or other people’s image of Jesus first.

Quit trying to create your own ideas about Jesus or listening to your friends’ ideas about Him. Always remember this: Jesus is a personal Savior, and personal means you! And if I can convince you not to change Him, He’ll show Himself to you personally.

You don’t need all of Los Angeles, California, to get God to come to you. Get alone in your living room and He’ll come. In fact, the Holy Spirit will bring Jesus on the inside of you, just like He is in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And if you’ll accept this, He’ll come into your living room and operate on you. He’s the best surgeon in the world. He’ll come into your living room, stretch your crooked legs out, and make them normal.

And I don’t think that He’ll do it; I know He will! He’ll free anybody!

Devils Are Where Problems Are

In the New Testament, you’re given the right to use Jesus’ name to keep all devils under your feet. Devils are where you have a lot of problems. The devil himself is a destroyer. He’s come to do three things: to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). He’s your enemy.

You and I are in battle. We’re trying to get to heaven, but the devil means to stop us. He was thrown out of heaven, and he’s mad about it. The devil especially wants to attack human beings because they’re created in the image of God, and he’s mad at God (Genesis 1:26).

The devil wants to turn you into an abnormal creature.

It doesn’t matter to him what kind. He wants your body eaten up with cancer. He wants to make you a drunk or a dope addict. He’d like to make you step out on your mate and live with somebody else. The devil doesn’t want you to be true to your mate. He doesn’t want you to have sex with just your mate—he wants you to have it with two, three, four, or five different people. He’ll tell you how good it feels.

Don’t Listen to Your Body

Some people walk by their feelings. That will get you into trouble. They say, “But my body wants, my body needs, my body likes….”

Your body lies! You can’t live by what your body wants. If you start doing that, you’ll stay in trouble.

One day the Lord told me to stop smoking, so I did. That’s when I realized how strongly my body controlled my life. I had smoked for twenty years and I didn’t see anything wrong with it. At church they had a smoking break between Sunday school and the main service. All my relatives smoked. I thought everyone did. Why should I think it was wrong?

The little children in my church didn’t wait until they got big so they could smoke. I used to sneak into a ditch and smoke so no one would see me. I smoked cigarettes, cigars, rabbit tobacco, even corn silks and grapevines. I smoked anything that would burn!

So I said, “Okay, Jesus. I didn’t know You wanted me to stop smoking. So if You do, I will, Lord.”

I pulled out my cigarettes, slapped them down on the table, and said, “Thank You, Lord. For You, I’ll do it.”

That was fine, and it sounded nice when I said it; but when you’ve been used to smoking a pack a day for twenty years, after three or four hours go by, that dumb body of yours will have different ideas.

In a few hours, my jaws began to ache and I heard a little voice talking to me. I knew it wasn’t God because it was from my body. My body rose up and said, “I want a cigarette.”

I said, “No, you can’t have a cigarette.” And I mean I wanted one so bad I could taste it. But I said, “No! I’ve quit smoking!”

It doesn’t make any difference to your body what you’ve decided to do. Your body is only a house that you live in. It’s separate, and it has its own goofed-up desires.

For example, every time my body sees a coconut cream pie, it wants three pieces—especially when it’s homemade coconut cream pie. But I always tell my body, “No, you can’t have three pieces, you dummy.”

When your body likes something, it says, “I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it!” You have to say, “You desire for pie (or cigarettes or whatever), go from me!” I said, “You desire for cigarettes, come out, in Jesus’ name. Go from me!” I had to make the dumb thing leave.

Your body doesn’t care what God tells you. It will rise up and demand what it’s craving. You have to tell your body to shut up!

I thought I’d put my strong faith to work and make it just fine. But I found out my faith wasn’t quite as strong as I thought it was. I had some growing to do.

After eight hours, things got desperate! Walking along, I’d meet people who were smoking. My body would say, “Turn around,” hoping that a puff might come through the wind, and I would at least be able to smell it.

I’ll never forget the second day. My body was desperate. It started screaming. It didn’t stay nice like the first day when it would just say, “I want a cigarette.” The second day it screamed, “I want a cigarette! And I want one right now!” I would have given a hundred dollars for a cigarette, but I wouldn’t let myself have one.

After some tough times, I finally won. But I had to resist my body and its desires, just as I have to resist Satan and his suggestions. I learned that the only way I could gain control over my body was to deny it, to make it serve me rather than for me to be a slave to it.

That’s what you must do. You must learn to say “No” to disease just as you say “No” to your body. But remember, don’t go by what your body says.

When a disease tries to rest in your body, resist the disease and say, “No, disease, I take authority over you, in Jesus’ name. Come out of me!”