In this vision, Jesus explained to me that it is not necessary to operate in the gift of discerning of spirits to deal with a demon when it is tormenting, intimidating, or discouraging a member of the Body of Christ. In such situations, we have the authority to command it to stop its maneuvers against a believer.

In similar cases, there is no need for a gift of the Spirit to oppose the demon and exercise authority over it. Jesus also told me that a believer does not need a word of knowledge, nor to be a pastor, to exercise authority over demons. Every believer has the necessary authority to use the Name of Jesus and resist the devil (Matthew 18:18; Mark 16:17; Luke 10:19; Philippians 2:9-10).

Jesus explained to me: “At any time, anyone in the Church or outside the Church who does or says something, acts in a way that hinders, restrains, torments, intimidates, discourages, or delays the ministry of the Church—there is no need for discerning of spirits or a word of knowledge to know that the devil is behind the trouble.

“You simply need to command the spirit that is operating against the believer to cease its maneuvers, and do it in My Name—in the Name of Jesus. You are not to deal with the person, but with the evil spirit working through them.”

You see, many individuals, whether believers or unbelievers, yield to the devil without even realizing it. Sometimes, through ignorance, people may innocently become instruments of Satan. But there are also cases where people—even believers—consciously yield to him.

Although believers have authority to cast out an evil spirit that is influencing a person in order to torment the Body of Christ, we have no authority to stop the person who is the source of the problem. Our authority does not go that far, because we have no power over human will—and it may be that the person wants to keep that evil spirit. No one can be delivered if they want to keep an evil spirit.

That is why binding the evil spirit working through someone will not set the person who is causing the problem free, because they have free will, and they may want to retain those spirits. But by exercising our authority, we can stop the evil spirits in their strategy against a believer.

Problems arise in this area when believers try to deal with people in the natural realm, rather than with the evil spirits influencing them in the spiritual realm. Time and time again, we deal with people when we should be dealing with evil spirits—and we end up with a big mess.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. There are times and places where we need to deal with individuals in the natural. But Jesus was speaking here about cases where the enemy is working through people who are creating problems in the Church, the Body of Christ. If someone is hindering, tormenting, or discouraging the Church, then evil spirits are operating through that person.

Intervening in someone’s life so they can be delivered from a demon is a completely different situation. In most cases, their will is involved. What do they want regarding that situation?

Do they want to be delivered? Some people want things to stay just the way they are; they don’t want to be set free from demons. In that case, there is nothing that can be done. When individuals genuinely desire deliverance, we must cast out the evil spirit in them under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

But there’s another aspect to this topic: we must understand that not all of life’s problems are caused by a demon—just as not everything that goes wrong in life has a direct demonic cause. Of course, the devil is ultimately behind all the evil in the world, and because we live in a world where Satan is god (2 Corinthians 4:4), problems, trials, and difficulties will inevitably arise…

This text is an excerpt from the book “The Triumphant Church: Dominion Over All the Powers of Darkness” written by Kenneth Erwin Hagin.

We invite you to read the next article: “Oppression, Obsession, and Possession.”

TORMENTING THE CHURCH. TORMENTING THE CHURCH.