When a strong man armed keeps his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come on him, and overcome him, he takes from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divides his spoils.
LUKE: 11: 21-22
Jesus' offer of His kingdom was the star around which His entire ministry revolved. He didn't care about simply winning as argument; He cared about winning lives. He longed to drive His point into the people's hearts.
The armed "strong man" is the Davil, who stakes his claim in a person' s life. Christ, "someone stronger," overpower s the strong man, assumes his command, and distributes his plunder. So who is greater? Who is worthy of our allegiance? Surely the conqueror Christ. Jesus climaxes His point in verse 23:
"He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatter."
We are either for Him or against Him. We either gather or scatter, do good or do harm to His cause. We can't publicly pledge allegiance to His kingdom of light and privately make allegiance with Satan"s kingdom of darkness. There is no middle ground. And It"s not enough to merely clean up our behavior. A person can tidy up his or her life, yet neglect to put Christ at the center which, as Jesus warns, can lead to frightening results. Read the (verse, 24 - 26).
What exactly is Jesus telling us?
First: unclean spirit prefer to inhabit human bodies rather than to wander aimlessly through the neitherworld (waterless places).
Second: a life that is clean but without Christ is still helpless against the Adversary: it has no armor of God, no prayer, no protective presence of Christ.
Third: a subsequent demonic encounter can be worse than the original one.
We can't trifle with demons. Mere intellect or will power have no effect on them. They will not be shaken free apart from Christ's intervention.
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