“Ahaziah sent again a third captain of fifty with his fifty men…” (2 Kings 1:13)

Do you grasp the implication of “sent again”?

Some people think that once temptation comes and they overcome it, that’s the end. If the devil is defeated once, he takes a vacation. Know this and be wise. He is alive. Look at your television screen, and you’ll see wars in various parts of the world. There are earthquakes in different places. Terrorist organizations are destroying lives.

Volcanoes erupt, spewing their destructive magma far and wide. Ships still sink with their passengers and crew on board. Planes still crash, car accidents are numerous. Fires rage, claiming the lives of adults and children. Floods have not ceased. Temperature continues to wreak havoc, punishing humanity and society with tornadoes, typhoons, storms, and heavy rains. Only the less informed will attribute this phenomenon to the hand of God.

No! God does not want you prematurely dead; He does not desire a violent death for you. It is not His will for you to be maimed, injured, sick, confused, troubled, or terrorized. These are the devil’s side dishes; the works of the enemy. The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. However, when God appeared on the earthly scene in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, He came that we may have life, and have it more abundantly. Our enemy, the devil, is still alive.

After the death of fifty men by the fire of judgment, the Bible says: “sent again…” One might have thought that this experience would teach the devil’s children a lesson never to forget. Not so. The Bible says: “sent again…” The devil and his children do not quickly learn lessons, and you will need to teach them again and again…

If the devil comes to you seven times in a day, cast him out seven times in the same day. There should be no negotiation time.

Do not ask the devil if he wants to leave or not; just cast him out. Tell him to leave in the name of Jesus! Tell him to go from your life; go away! From the lives of my children; go away! From my marriage; go away! From my business; go away! From my finances; go away! Go away in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth! If you resist him steadfastly, the devil will flee from you in terror! Until you resist him, he remains pompous and arrogant.

One day, Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, gathered a very great army and entered into an alliance with thirty-two kings. They joined together and went out to terrorize their neighbors. Israel was one of them. To Ahab, the king of Israel, Ben-Hadad sent the following message:

“He sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel and said to him, ‘Thus says Ben-Hadad: Your silver and your gold are mine; your best wives and children also are mine.'” (1 Kings 20:2-3)

“Sent again…” Once is not enough. The devil is hard of hearing; he must be beaten again and again and again for him to learn a lesson.

“Sent again…” After the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit came upon Him, and He was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. There, He had an encounter with the devil. Three times in a row, the devil came to tempt Him, saying, “If you are the Son of God…“

Do something. And each time, he was beaten back by the Lord with the truth, the Word of God. But after the third beating, the Bible says:

“Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to Him.” Matthew 4:11

Your persistent victory over evil will make the devil flee, then bring angels to minister to you. Once he has received a good beating, he will stay clear, at least for a season!

In 1984, my wife and I had bought a new car and had just moved to a new neighborhood. Around the same time, a man with a huge dog, a German Shepherd, moved in with this animal. The dog was aggressive and ferocious. Every time we drove by, the dog would jump on its hind legs and offer our car a hot chase. My wife would lock all the car’s safety features, forcing me to go faster. “Honey, move! Move! Move!!!” So, I would press the acceleration pedal, and the car would wobble a great distance. The dog was relentless; it would chase us sometimes for over half a kilometer, then turn back after feeling tired.

One evening, after a Holy Spirit service in the church, a program in which we had cast out demons, as I was driving back, the dog again jumped on its hind legs and started another hot pursuit. My wife was frantic. “Honey, what are you doing? Move! Move, move faster!” And we drove that car like a plane ready to take off.

“Apply the brakes”; I suddenly heard the Lord tell me. And at that high speed, I suddenly pressed the brake. And the dog, who had no idea of the instruction I had received or what I was about to do, smashed against the body of the car, painfully destroying its jaw. With a scream of pain, it fell backward, away from the car and as fast as it could. Then the Lord told me:

“When the devil pursues you next, apply your brakes.”

That was the last time that dog chased our car.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The Bible did not instruct us to turn away from the devil; but rather to bind, resist, and cast out the devil; he will flee from you.

After that day, whenever the dog saw our car approaching or passing by, it would run away. From there, I learned that if I could stand against Goliath as David did, God would put his head in my hands.

Do you understand? Never let the devil steal from you, and then turn around to say, “The Lord gave – the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the Lord.”

The Lord gives; He never takes away. He will not cause you pain. Besides, where there is unnecessary pain, you will not find God. It is the devil who steals your joy, your work, your health; it is he who steals your belongings, he steals, steals, steals…! The devil is a thief. Command him to depart in the name of Jesus; the Name above all names; the Name at the mention of which every knee bows; the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of the Living God. Hallelujah!

Listen to me. Do you know how much you have lost? How much unnecessary pain you have endured? What oppression you have tolerated? And how much suffering you have been exposed to because you forgot that you are a man or woman of God, and that the Holy Spirit of the Living God dwells in you?

If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men; and it was done. Elijah said: Father, let them know that I am a man of God. Yet I can hear God say; son let it be done as you have declared for a testimony. And the fire came down. Hallelujah!

This text is an excerpt from the book “If I am a man of God” written by Benson Idahosa.