“How can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.” (Matthew 12:29 ESV)
In this parable about the strongman, Jesus was referring to satan as the strongman, and told us that the only way to capture spoils from him is to first bind him. The question that we must bring up is this–what kind of spoils can we, or even want to, take from satan? Spoils that belong to us, that’s what! You see, over the years many battles have been fought between us and satan. And the honest truth is that satan has taken a lot of spoils from believers, things that are legally yours!
Everything that is within the Holy Word of God that has been promised to you is legally yours. As a child of God, it belongs to you–not satan. Every blessed promise is yours. Every blessing. Every gift. Every victory. It’s all yours. If you look closely enough at God’s Word, you will find all throughout its pages the Lord saying to you, “I have a plan for your life and it doesn’t include your enemy winning.”
In this marvelous plan God has given to you, there is salvation, freedom from guilt, and a total canceling of the penalty of sin. You can have a new life, a new name, a new way, a new home and a new song. You can have protection, healing for your body, a strong mind, and freedom from fear. You can have all of this plus power over the devil. Now that sounds like a good plan, doesn’t it?
But Satan knows it is a good plan, too. So he will try to rob us of this plan with this lying, cheating, stealing and destruction. He wages spiritual warfare against you, and he will not voluntarily return the things he has taken from you. You see, in moments of weakness we have turned some things over to him that he is fighting to keep. But understand this. It doesn't matter how hard he fights, we are going to take back what is legally ours. Do you want to know the reason why we have a legal right to all of God's blessings and all of God's promises? If you do, I challenge you to march up Golgotha’s hill and look at the empty cross. It is a cross still stained by the blood of the Lamb of God. And over that cross is a receipt that says paid in full.
Because Jesus paid the debt for our sin, we have the power through His name to bind the strong man and take from him those things which are legally ours. They are paid for by the precious blood of Jesus. With that as our established baseline of legal ownership, now we must ask ourselves what spoils can we take back from the devil? Well, there are nine specifically.
Knowledge of our Salvation - The first stolen thing we were going to take back is the knowledge of our salvation. The devil has tried to rob people of their salvation for too long. He tries to rob us constantly by condemning us of all our past failures and mistakes. He tries to convince us that we aren’t really saved, that surely God wouldn’t save someone like us. After all, God knows the real you. He knows what you’re really like. Ever heard those words in your head before? I have. If satan can get you to doubt your salvation, he can start to control the narrative played inside your head. He can start to place more and more false narratives there with his doubts and lies. I have good news for you, though. No longer do you have to live in the guilt and shame of the sins of your past. Through salvation you have been set free from those things, set free to soar upon the winds of the heavens, to live, not in condemnation, but rather freedom and hope.
Total Health - Infirmities and sickness will have to be brought under subjection of the healing virtue of Christ. Isaiah said that “with His stripes we are healed.” Peter said, though, that “with His stripes we were healed.” We will take back strength in our bodies. We will be healed emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically. Total health will be ours. How? Because we serve the God “with healing in His wings!” We serve the God who said in Exodus 15:26, “for I am the Lord that healeth thee.”
Our Finances - Satan has bound many Christians in debt, causing them to be living from one paycheck to the next. If you don’t think this is important, then you are sadly mistaken. Yes, many are in debt because they made bad decisions. But there are many who genuinely are in financial trouble simply due to some bad circumstances within their lives. If Satan can ruin your finances, he can get you depressed and even oppressed because of it. God wants to pour out His blessings on his children. He doesn’t want us to be stressed out all the time, constantly worried about how we are going to make it, but, rather, to be able to live in freedom to bondage.
Our Families - It is God's will that your family be saved. It is God's will for wayward mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, husbands, and wives to be saved by the blood of the Lamb. We are going to start taking back our families from the enemy and claiming them for Jesus. We're going to start taking them back so that they will be in the ark of safety with us. Acts 16:31 will start to come to pass: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” [italic emphasis mine]. While this was a specific word to the prison guard who was in charge of Paul and Silas, and about his particular family, it is nonetheless a powerful statement as to the power that one can have over their family once an individual has been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Our Peace - There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that we live in a time where we need the Lord's peace. We need His peace, the peace that passes all understanding. We need His assurance. We need to be settled in our spirits. In a day where turmoil reigns, each and every day, we need to put an end to turmoil in our own lives. We serve the God of peace. His peace is our peace. Ephesians 2:14 says that Jesus “ is our peace.” Even in our spiritual warfare, Ephesians 6:15 tells us that our “feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” Philippians 4:7 let us know “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” That peace has been promised to us and we're going to take it back from the devil.
Our Joy - Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” We have too many sad, depressed Christians in our churches today. So many of our people need their joy back. They are weak and don't even know why. But I do. According to Nehemiah 8:10, “the joy of the Lord is my strength.” We will not be strong again until we come to a full realization of this principle. It is the Lord’s good pleasure for you to have His joy. Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” Psalm 89:15 says, “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.” Psalm 95:1 continues this theme, with the words, “O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.” Over and over again throughout Scripture, it tells us that it is God’s will for us to have joy. Satan has taken it from a lot of people in this day and age, but enough is enough. We must take back our joy to give us the strength to overcome oppression and depression.
Fear-Free Living - 2 Timothy 1:7 is a verse that you should know by heart. Memorize it. Do not allow the enemy to cause you to forget it. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Romans 8:15 is a beautiful passage of Scripture that tells what our lives are supposed to be like now that we are saved through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Read these words carefully: “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” It acknowledges that before we were saved, we lived a life of fear. Now that we are saved, we are no longer to live in fear, because we don’t have to. We have been adopted into the glorious family of God. We can now call Father God our Father. No longer do we have to walk in the bondage of fear. The cross of Jesus Christ, which shows us perfect love, has come and cast out all fear.
The Power Of Our Prayers - We are living in a day where it seems like the whole world is trying to stop us from having the right to pray. They tell us it's not politically correct to pray in public. They tell us that it's old fashioned and no one needs to do that any longer. Well, hear me clearly–I will not allow Satan to stop me from marching boldly into the presence of God. God is my Father. He loves me and wants to talk with me, and I want to talk to Him. There is power in prayer! “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14). God hears us! We are not just talking into thin air, we are communicating with the Eternal Creator, we are making our petitions known to the One who can hear and answer us! Don’t allow the enemy to deceive you. Don’t buy into his lies that God doesn’t hear you. God does hear you! We're going to take back the power of our prayers again!
Our Right To Claim The Word - We will take back our right to claim what is in the Word of God. Every Word that is in our Bibles is written for you and I. Every Word is my Heavenly Father's, and as a child of God, I have a right to them all. Through the Word of God, I will overcome. Through the Word of God, I will be victorious. Through the Word of God, I will subdue my enemies. Through the Word of God, I will speak to the mountain, and it shall be moved. Through the Word of God, I will claim His precious promises for me! Jesus said in Mark 13:31, “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” His Word is our hope, it is our promise, it is our victory! And in this spiritual war we are engaged in, it is our honor to “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” and use it for the glory of the Kingdom!
These nine spoils of battle are rightfully ours to take back from the enemy. It is our legal right to take back from satan what he has stolen from many of us. We are not going to settle for anything less. We want what belongs to us and we want it back now!