Now this is what Jesus said. He said: I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing, nothing, nothing shall by any means, harm you. I give you authority. That word authority is the word to delegate the legal right to represent Jesus, and speak and act on His behalf. I give you authority - and that authority is to trample on serpents and scorpions. Those are pictures of the devil with his nasty bites and poison, and over all the dunamis, the power, the supernatural dimension of the enemy, and nothing shall in any way harm you. If you've got a Bible underline nothing shall in any way harm you. You may get harassed, you may have some difficulties, you may have a few setbacks, but nothing shall harm you. There it is, Luke, Chapter 10 and Verse 19.
Now let's have a look at the apostles, and what happened to them. There's several examples, I'll just pick up one, in Acts, Chapter 13. We're looking at the apostles, and having a look at some of the difficulties they faced, so apostles always face spiritual opposition of some kind. When we seek to advance the kingdom, there's always challenges. That's part of the deal, so - Verse 4 - they were sent out by the Holy Ghost. There's the word Apostolos. They were commissioned and sent forth by the Holy Spirit and they went to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. Then they went down to Salamis, and they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and had John as their assistant. That place there that they were, that's the place that they had visited in Salamis, there was the site of a temple to the god Estarta, which is a New Testament version of Jezebel. It's a controlling, witchcraft spirit, so it was the centre of a temple.
When they'd gone through the island of to Paphos, this is where the site of the temple was, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, son of Jesus. Of course Jesus was a popular name in those days - and he was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul, and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer, for that was his name, withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. So let's have an understanding. We have a Roman proconsul. That means he's the ruler over the island, and wherever you get governance of any kind, witchcraft spirits will always seek to attach to them, to try and control that person, so whether it's in the home or the family, whether it's in governance in the community, there'll always be people who have controlling spirits seek to get around that area, to try and gain control.
So the sorcerer was working alongside the Roman proconsul, and trying to influence him so he could get control over the whole island, and notice here it sought to turn him away from the faith, and Saul, who is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, looked intently on him. He's full of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost's inspiring him, and he rebukes him, and the man immediately gets struck blind. So you notice now, this is a power confrontation. Paul is advancing the gospel, and the consequence of that are demons surface, and he has to confront them - and he was not afraid to do so. Whenever we seek to advance the kingdom, whether it's in our own life, or in the lives of others, there is always some forms of resistance. You have to understand that, and learn to recognise it, and learn to stand up and assert the authority God gave you. You have authority over all the power of the enemy, so whatever lies in front of you, in your mission for the Lord, you have authority, God gives you power to deal with it. It's your choice whether you believe that, or whether you're intimidated, it's too big and too hard.