Rebuke

Now it is time for our quick lesson on rebuking. I said in the last post that this was a new one for me, and I share it gladly with you.

Us Pentecostals will rebuke anything. And I am not saying that to be funny, but if you are from a Pentecostal congregation, you know what I am talking about. People go up front, and the preacher, Elders, and even a prophet or two start anointing with oil, laying hands on you, and rebuking whatever is bothering you. You know, like "I rebuke this sickness in the Name of Jesus, I rebuke this enemy, and I rebuke this devil or that devil."

That is all fine and good, but we have been doing it wrong. The wrong word in those sentences is the small word "I". Now "I" gets us in enough trouble by itself, but that is another lesson all together. You see, we have no business going out and fighting with any demon, devil, or Satan himself. As TD Jakes says, the best way to beat the devil is to "not get into the ring."

Now don't get me wrong, you will be involved in some battles. And God has equipped you to win those battles. Read Ephesians Chapter 6 and review the Armor of God. Jesus tells us that "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven" . But these should all be defensive battles! These should all be responses to attacks on you.

A little disclaimer, one sure way to know that you are doing the right thing for God is if you are being attacked by the devil. This is why Christians always seem to be under attack and people living like hell have such an easy go at it (most of the time). They nailed Jesus Himself to a cross, after all, and He promised some of us would "drink" the same cup as Him, which is die for our beliefs.

But again, Christians are equipped to deal with these attacks, and God allows them to happen. God allows them to happen for various reasons, but the main ones are the testing of your Faith. This includes a smorgasbord of others, such as drawing you closer to Him, teaching you a lesson in humility, and strengthening you for future battles. But a lot of Christians fail miserably at these tests, and Jesus is always there to pick us up and wipe the dust off, and then send us out again. We fail because we do not use our equipment right. The armor of God is another lesson entirely that could never be put in one post, but today I want to talk about an offensive weapon greater than any others, and that is the Word.

See, when we talk about "I rebuke you Satan in the name of Jesus", we are using OUR word. Sure, Jesus said whatever we ask in His Name, He would give it to us, but study a little more and you will see that He was not talking about this, but something else.

Now, lets look at our text: Jude Verse 9. "Yet Michael the Archangel, when he was disputing with the Devil in a debate about Moses body, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"

Now, lets get you a little background. Moses went on a mountain to die, and they never find his body, even though Joshua allowed the people to look for it (Deut Chapter 34). The story of Satan and Michael fighting over the body comes from an Apocryphal book of the Bible that is not included in our current canon.

The story goes that God sent the strongest angel He had ever created, Michael, down to earth to retrieve Moses' body. If you remember from Revelation, Michael is also the battle leader, or warrior, that leads the angels in the last battles. So he is a pretty powerful angel. When he arrived on the mountain, Satan met him there, and they "disputed", or argued over his body. Satan used some pretty rough language, promises, and blasphemy to convince Michael to allow him to have the body of Moses. Michael refuses to confront him out of fear of disrespecting God. God has withheld the pleasure of defeating Satan for Himself, and actually does it twice during the end times. All Michael would say was "the Lord Rebuke You!", and Satan immediately fled because he thought that God may actually show up Himself.

If the strongest angel (other than Satan) ever created refuses to rebuke Satan, should we? In every direct confrontation in the Bible between Satan and someone else, what defeats him? Think about that for a second. Think about these direct occasions where Satan did not send a demon or evil spirit, but left his customary place of accusing the Saints before God's throne and directly confronted somebody: Eve, Job, Jesus, and Michael the Archangel.

The answer is God's Word. Cursed Eve, restored Job, Glorified Jesus, and allowed Michael.

Want to know how powerful God's Word is? Have you seen the sun move from its place since He said "let there be light?" If your a woman and had a baby, did it hurt? When it rains, are there still rainbows?

The Lord rebuke you. Not I, not we, not in Jesus name I, or we, but The Lord Rebuke you.

You would be amazed at the results of believing and using this phrase. Now, this is a hard pill for some of you Pharisees to swallow. You like thinking you have all of this power and can single handily whip any demon, devil, or even Satan himself. You like thinking you can push around a supernatural being by yourself.

But our power comes from the Word, which comes from God. YOU have no power on your own. Your heads have become so swelled that it makes it hard for anyone to share your pew seat.

The Word. His Word. Your power.

The Lord Rebuke you! Try it, believe it, or continue getting knocked on your hiney. Your choice.