The Power of Rebuke

We often think the only people who curse things are those who work with Satan. We don’t want to curse things because that sounds like witchcraft because Satan is always cursing things. However, the first one who ever cursed something was God. He cursed Satan who came against Him and tried to overthrow God.

Satan had five “I wills.” Satan said, “I will ascend to heaven, I will set my throne on high, I will sit on the mount of the assembly, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.” Isaiah 14:13-14.

God had five “I wills.” "I will throw you out of heaven as profane. I will cast you to the ground below. I will send you into the sides of the pit. I will expose you before all the world. I will bring a fire from the midst of you, it will devour you and bring you to ashes.” Ezekiel 28:18.

The power of rebuke that comes from our mouth should be used toward the works of the devil, but never toward God and never toward each other.

There is a time for correction, but we never have a right to curse each other. We reserve that for the works of the enemy.  God has placed within us the ability to bless and to curse, to loose as well as to bind.

Here’s how we need to look at the works of the enemy. The works of the enemy are trespassers in our life. If you opened up your front door, and homeless people found their way into your living room, had pitched a tent and were eating out of your refrigerator, what would you do? Would you go in and say, “Welcome. Stay. Help yourself to anything you want.” I don’t think that is what you would do. You would be upset they violated your property and broke into your house.  How often do we do that when sickness comes into our life?

Sickness is a trespasser on the righteous property of God. You are the righteous property of God. He purchased you with His blood, and with the stripes.   He endured at the crucifixion.   He died for you so sickness would have to go far from you. This is true of any evil Satan would try to put on you.

Poverty would have to go far from you. Sin would have to go far from you.  But we often let them come and have control when God is telling us it is time to cast out the evil works of Satan.

It is a violation against God’s righteousness for us to allow sickness in our life. If Jesus went to the cross and died for it, then it must be an enemy of God. If it is an enemy of God, it ought to be an enemy of us.  But too many Christians treat it as their friend.  And they treat it as if it’s God’s friend. If Jesus went to the cross and died for it, it is to be rebuked in our life because it is an enemy coming against the righteousness of God.

In the book of Luke, we have a story of Jesus cursing an unclean spirit. “Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know you. You are the Holy One of God.” Luke 4:33

Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, but He did not rebuke the man.  He rebuked the demon in the man. We need to understand the difference between the two. When we rebuke a sickness, we are speaking past the person to the trespasser inside of them, and sickness is as much a trespasser into a person’s life as a demon is a trespasser. If a person is demon possessed they would want to be delivered.  But so many Christians who are sick think deliverance would be wrong.  Many people think sickness comes from God. It is no more from God than a demon is from God.

In Luke 4: 38-39. We have the word used again.  “Now He arose from the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. But Simon’s wife’s mother was sick with a high fever, and they made a request of Him concerning her. So he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and left her. And immediately she arose and served them.”

“Rebuked” is the same word in verse 35 and verse 39. In verse 35, Jesus rebuked the demon. In verse 39 He rebuked the fever. When Jesus rebuked the demon,  the demon could hear Him. Sickness can also hear.  You don’t speak to something that can’t hear. Jesus wasn’t speaking just for the benefit of people listening to him. If no one would have been around, He would have still spoken to the sickness. Sickness can hear.

When Jesus spoke to the fig tree, it did what He said.  It died. Therefore the fig tree could hear.   So don’t think it odd that Christians speak to circumstances, to trials and troubles around them.  Romans 8:31 says, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” We speak to things.  Therefore we should speak not only to things for good but also curse things around us that are hindering us in our life.

Certain things come into our life to bless us. Certain things come into our life to hinder and stop us. Therefore we should be able to loose the things into our life that bless us and rebuke the things that come into our life to destroy us. That’s the power Jesus has given.

In fact, Jesus called it the keys to the Kingdom.  Keys are what opens up doors. There are certain doors inyour life that need to be opened up, and certain doors that need to be slammed shut. Jesus taught us that cursing and blessing are both keys to the Kingdom.  “I give you the power to bind on earth what’s been bound in heaven, andloose on earth what has been loosed in heaven.”

We often think the keys to the Kingdom are just the blessings we unlock. There are certain doors that have been held open long enough by Satanthat we need to slam shut so the evil will quit coming in to stop the blessings of God.  We need to open up doors for blessing and close doors for curses.

The Reason We Are Healed is to Minister to Others

Luke 4:40 says, “Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases [or all different types of diseases] brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. Devils also came out of many, crying and saying, ‘You are the Christ the son of God’. And he, rebuking them, not allowing them to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.”

In this chapter, Jesus rebuked demons twice and rebuked fever once.  He saw fevers and demons as basically the same thing. He didn’t do one thing for demons and something different for sickness. The power of the tongue was used for both.  Why is the same thing used for both? Because both come from the devil.  You don’t rebuke what comes from God. You accept what comes from God. Thistells us Jesus recognized sickness came from the devil. He rebuked it.

The sickness in the woman wasn’t even tuberculosis or cancer. It was a fever. We ought to rebuke fevers the same way we would rebuke any sickness. It all comes from the same source.

What happened after Jesus rebuked the fever in Peter’s mother-in-law? It immediately left. Expect circumstances to hear and obey. It goes on to tell what the purpose of healing is. “Immediately she rose and ministered to them (Matt. 8:15).” Healing is not the end result. Ministry is the end result. After healing comes ministry.

Christians often want to get healed just so they’ll feel better.  We should not want to be healed just so we feel good. The reason we are healed is to be able to minister to others.

I believe one of the fastest ways to release healing into your life is to say, “Father, the moment I am healed I’mtelling everybody about my healing. I’m going to turn it into a great testimony. I’m not going to be the nine lepers who left. I’m going to be the one leper who came back and gave a testimony.   I don’t want to be known as the nine who left with no gratitude. I want to be so filled with gratitude I tell everybody what Jesus has done for me, and use that testimony to see other people get blessed.”

The Meaning of Rebuke

What does the word “rebuke” mean?  The Greek word is epitimao. The word epi means “upon or higher.” Timao means “to judge.” It literally means to judge or critique from a high standard. It means to sit on a bench and look down. It’s the same as a judge looking down on people, and he’s in this righteous position to judge and look down on circumstances and make a decision. When you rebuke sickness and demons, you arein a higher position rebuking something in a lower position.

There are times when Jesus rebuked His disciples and said, “O you of little faith.”  He didn’t rebuke the disciples themselves. He rebuked the attitude that was in them. To be of little faith is to listen to the voice of the devil.  When Petersaid to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesuspraised him. But a few verses later when Peter said, “No, Lord, they’re not going to take You and crucify you,” Jesus turned and rebuked him. The same man who had been listening to the Lord on one occasion listened to Satan on the next occasion.

We Are More Than Conquerors

What does this mean to us? God has lifted us up above Satan’s level, demons’ level, sicknesses’ level, poverty’s level, and we have a right to rebuke sickness, disease, demons, poverty, sin. We’ve been placed above it by the work of Jesus Christ.

There isn’t any sin in heaven, or demons. There isn’t any poverty or sickness.  Heaven is where we are seated with Christ and all things have been placed under the feet of Jesus.

We can read the story in Joshua 10 of how Joshua fought five armies who came against him. By the end of the battle, the five kings of those five nations were under his feet. The men put their feet on their neck and killed them. Then they hung them up on trees.

To cut their neck is to kill them. To hang them on a rope after they’re dead is rubbing salt in the wound.  When they killed them they were conquerors. When they hung them on a tree, they were more than conquerors. I want you to know, we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ.

When we rebuke the devil we’re actually rebuking him after Jesus already conquered him. What an insult that we come along after Jesus defeated him on the ground and we hang him on a tree.  For us to come against the works of the devil is really being more than a conqueror because Jesus has already conquered him. He’s given us all the ability afterward to really rub it in his face.

When we use the name of Jesus, we are taking the victory Jesus has already won over Satan. Jesus destroyed him, visibly, made a show of them openly, triumphed over him in His resurrection and Jesus has nowgiven us that same authority in His name. When we use the name of Jesus against the devil, we are reinforcing the victory Jesus had at the cross, reinforcing the defeat Satan has already gone through one time.  It’s like rubbing salt in a wound. Glory to God! And we have that ability now.

We Have Power Over the Enemy

The Bible tells us in Luke 10:17: “The seventy-two returned joyously, saying, “Lord, even the demons submit themselves to us in your name.” The devils are subject to us through the name of Jesus. We don’t come in our name. We come in the name of Jesus.  That is the power to rebuke. We rebuke Satan, not in our righteousness, not in our name, but in the name of Jesus and through His righteousness. The devils are subject to us through His name.

Luke 10:18-19 goes on to say, ” Jesus replied, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Look, I have given you authority to crush snakes and scorpions underfoot. I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you.” We not only have power over serpents and scorpions –  big demons and little demons,  we also have power (or authority) over all the power of the enemy. That includes any of the works of Satan that come against us.   We have the power to rebuke demons. We have the power to rebuke fevers. We have the power to rebuke cancer. We have the power to rebuke arthritis because they are all the works of Satan.

What I’m simply saying is every pain and sickness you have been carrying are under your feet.  Satan has tried to convince you that’s not true. However, in the scripture we have covered, it has been proven that every sickness and every attack of Satan is under your feet. Luke 10:19 tells you that you have been given the authority to tread on all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you.

The power of the enemy is any problem you are facing. You may have a paycheck that won’t quite pay the bills. You may have soreness in your body. You may have heart disease or some sort of oppression. It’s all been placed under your feet. All these things have been placed under your feet, but your power is through the words that come from your mouth. You need to rebuke these things that have entered your life.

Your life is property bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. You need to understand with His righteousness you are declared holy. You need to see Satan as a trespasser on the property bought by God. You need to tell Satan he has no right to be in your life and command him to leave in the name of Jesus.

Other Areas Jesus Used the Power of Rebuke

Jesus came against a lunatic spirit. This was a young boy that probably had epilepsy. The word lunatic literally means “moonstruck”.  Satan used the fullness of the moon to confuse people.  When the moon was full, he would do all sorts of violence.  Jesus went in and rebuked the spirit in Matthew 17:16.

Next, He spoke to deaf and dumb spirits.  Mark 9:25-27 “Noticing that the crowd had surged together, Jesus spoke harshly to the unclean spirit, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you to come out of him and never enter him again.” After screaming and shaking the boy horribly, the spirit came out. The boy seemed to be dead; in fact, several people said that he had died.  But Jesus took his hand, lifted him up, and he arose.”

Jesus rebuked unclean spirits in Mark 1:25-26. “Silence!” Jesus said, speaking harshly to the demon. “Come out of him!”  The unclean spirit shook him and screamed, then it came out.”  Unclean spirits are demons of sexual perversion.   We are told the works of the flesh are manifest which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness. Uncleanness isn’t just immorality. It is more than having sexual affairs. It gets into all types of sexual perversion, Jesus rebuked sexual perversion as satanic.   He didn’t try to figure out if they were born that way or if they had genetic problems.  He rebuked the power of Satan over them.  He saw it as under His feet.

Jesus also rebuked circumstances. In Matthew 8:26“He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you people of weak faith?” Then he got up and gave orders to the winds and the lake, and there was a great calm.” He rebuked winds. Winds not only refer to physical winds in your life but the winds of circumstance that come against your life.

There’s a time when you finally stand up to the circumstances of life and say, “Circumstances, in Jesus’ name, STOP! Peace, be still.” Just as Jesus rebuked the winds, you can rebuke the winds of circumstances around you and see it come to pass.

The Power of the Tongue is for Blessing and for Cursing

When the power of the tongue blesses, we take the promises of God’s blessing and begin to speak them in our life.  By the creative power of the tongue and the Holy Spirit inside us, those blessings begin to come to pass. We also need to understand the power of the tongue to rebuke and to stop the works of the devil in our life.

Romans, chapter 8:31 says, “So what are we going to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”  What “things” are we talking about?

Verse 35 goes on to say, ” Who will separate us from Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”

Then in verse 38 it says, “I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created.”

We must understand that no matter what Satan sends into our life, it can’t separate us from the love of God, but we do have the power to get rid of it when it comes into our life by speaking to it.

“What shall we then say to these things?” We say: Things – if God is for me, you cannot be against me?

The “things” in verse 31 refer to a lack of food, lack of clothing, and evil circumstance. Peril is the evil circumstances of life.  Perilous times.  Sword is when we go to war.  This verse is simply saying we don’t care how bad life gets, it cannot be bigger than the love of God.  And there comes a time to speak against it.

Moses spoke against war.  How can we speak against war? War is so big.  It’s not bigger than God, nor is it bigger than His Word.  In Psalm 91:7, Moses said, “A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand;  But it shall not come near you.”

When the flu season starts is when you make a declaration: It shall not come near my house.   No plague will come near my dwelling.  By the stripes of Jesus, I am healed. Rebuke any sickness that comes against you in the name of Jesus and watch it wither and die.

When sickness or oppression comes to us, we have the power to rebuke it in the name of Jesus and it has to leave. All things have been placed under our feet by the resurrection of Jesus!