The king of Hell took a poor wretch and made him act uncontrollably, as usual, to terrorize the residents of Capernaum. No one could deal with this man, because the liar made him be feared. He behaved violently, acting with superhuman strength to make himself seem invincible. Jesus went to the synagogue where the man was, precisely to free him from all evil!

At the beginning of my ministry, I was greatly used by the Lord in the deliverance of people possessed by evil spirits sent by the devil. It can be said that there were thousands of cases of deliverance of individuals who were previously dominated by darkness. The important thing is that they all became free. The Name of Jesus is the only weapon capable of driving out demons.

The actions of the possessed man made it clear who was controlling him. No one was at peace around him. Jesus went straight to that place. When he saw the Master, the demon-possessed man ran toward Him, screaming like a wild beast against the One who came to defeat all hellish power. Let us study the three phrases that reveal his strategy to try to deceive Jesus.

The first was: Ah! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? The devil used that demon-possessed man to try to convince the Savior to do nothing; after all, it was not the Lord's problem. Never try to dialogue with demons, for, having been angels who fell for Lucifer's lie, they possess great strength. The evil one wanted to say that this was only his work and that he had the right to operate there!

The demon did not know that Jesus came to destroy the works of evil, as John said: For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8b). Now, all the works of the devil have already been destroyed. However, the power of unbelief is what causes him to continue afflicting people with diseases and leading many to commit terrible acts. Satan was totally defeated on the cross (Colossians 2:15).

After seeing that his first attempt to deceive Jesus did not work, the adversary tried a second attack, saying: Did You come to destroy us? He knew that one day the Son of God would defeat him, but he asked Him if He had come there to destroy him before his time. Again, Christ heard what he said and did not answer him, for He knew that the enemy wanted to engage in dialogue in order to sow deception. The Savior came as a man, so could He be weaker than him? Certainly not!

The third attempt was to confuse the Master, for as the Holy One of God, He could not be here, since God's place is in Heaven: I know who You are—the Holy One of God! Jesus became incarnate; He was human like any one of us, so He could destroy the works of Hell (John 1:1-14). Seeing their arguments fall apart, the legion of demons left the man, who was freed and restored.

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares