Authority Over Serpents And Scorpions by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Luke 10:18-19

And He said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Jesus was speaking to people already familiar with the language of the prophets, and He used it deliberately. Ezekiel 2:6 records God telling the prophet not to fear the people he was sent to, though he dwelt among scorpions, a description of wicked, rebellious people, not literal insects. Jesus used the same picture elsewhere, calling the religious leaders of His day a generation of vipers, and telling them plainly, "you are of your father the devil." Serpents and scorpions describe wicked people acting under Satan's influence.

Two Different Words for Power

The verse uses two different Greek words, both translated "power" in English. The first, exousia, means authority, the legal right to act. The second, dunamis, describes ability, capacity, the actual working power behind that authority. Believers are given exousia, legal authority, over the dunamis, the working ability, of every wicked person and every demonic force set against them. Nothing shall by any means hurt you means exactly what it says: the ability of the enemy to cause harm has been directly removed.

Already Deprived of Power

John 16:33

In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

The Amplified rendering adds real clarity here: "I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you." This is not a fight still being fought; it is a fight already finished on our behalf. Whoever is born of God does not merely hope to be victorious over the world, they already are. 1 John 5:4 ties that victory directly to faith, not the intensity of a person's own feeling of faith, but the one faith, the shared life and standing given to every believer in Christ.

Declare What Has Already Been Given

Job 22:28

You shall also decree a thing, and it shall be established for you.

Authority that is never spoken accomplishes little. Declare plainly that Satan and every demon of darkness have no authority over your body, your home, or anything that belongs to you in Christ. Speak specifically over your city and nation: that they belong to Jesus Christ and to His people, not to any competing claim, and that the peace of God governs there. Wherever laws exist that are worded to silence the preaching of the gospel under any label, those assignments are declared frustrated and nullified in the name of the Lord Jesus. Life is spiritual before it is anything else, and interpreting circumstances only by what appears on the surface, or by what any news source reports, misses what is actually governing events underneath.