THE POWER TO TREAD ON SERPENTS...! by Pastor Stephen Benton

THE DAILY WORD   written by Pastor Stephen Benton      11-20-2000

"Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions,..."

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. ”

We came across that passage in the message taken from 1Peter chapter 1:4 where our heavenly inheritance is discussed.  In the course of the message we learned that our inheritance is undefiled.  That’s when the Holy Ghost gave us insight into the significance of this passage and the reason for the swift disposal of Satan from heaven.  Because of his infinite and seemingly, out of control love for the Church, God the Father wasted no time dispatching the Adversary from the heavens in order to keep our inheritance undefiled!  Today, as I write, that passage now takes on a deeper meaning, because it goes before what is written in verse 19, the text for yesterday’s message, it serves as a stepping stone to understanding verse 19.

What Jesus is telling his disciples is that the leader of the serpents and scorpions, Satan, is already fallen.  Because of that fact, we have a power over his cohorts and “over all the power of the enemy.”

I made reference to the movie the Matrix Sunday as an example of how God’s word is continually unplugging us from this worldly matrix.  In the movie, the new member was perceived as being “the One.”  If you recall, he was taken to see the oracle and the oracle was not convinced that he was who or what Morpheus thought he was.  At the completion of his training, he soon came to understand that he indeed was the One and that his powers against the enemy were unlimited.

As Special Agents of Christ, we cannot be effective against the enemy until we fully understand who we are and what are our God given abilities.  Who are we?  We are born again creatures of God: Sons of God!  What has God given us according to the text?  The power (exousia) to tread on serpents and scorpions.

Jesus is not referring to the literal snakes and scorpions here.  And neither is he referring to merely a spiritual force.  Now, that is a jawbreaker of a statement unless one understands that just as God has a Kingdom, so does Satan.  And if God has real, literal troops in his army, so does Satan.  Jesus referred to Satan’s kingdom with the remarks that if Satan’s kingdom be divided, it cannot stand.  We have learned over the past few years that Satan does indeed have a kingdom and that Jesus’ words about It being divided are true.  Consequently we must understand that Satan’s kingdom will fall.

(Here I must confess that I get a unique thrill just writing those words through a medium like the Net, Satan’s most powerful tool for enslaving the souls of men.  Do you remember the class we had some time back showing us that in all internet addresses, the www is equivalent to 666?  Imagine how Satan and his minions must feel when they see this stuff being transmitted.  They never envisioned their “spider web” would be used as a tool to bring about their own downfall.)

Back to Satan’s kingdom:  He does have one.  He has forces that are ready to do battle against the Kingdom of God and at t his time in his long career, Satan actually believes he has both the resources and the power to take God’s kingdom out.

God has been showing us, since July, 1996, in the text taken from II Thessalonians chapter two that what we know as “aliens” are none other than Satan’s creation.  Someone might object by saying that Satan cannot create.  No, he can’t but he can meddle with creation.  That’s exactly what he promulgated in Genesis chapter six with the intermingling of the sons of God with the daughters of men. The result of that union was a hybrid race called “giants.”  The flood was sent to eliminate that seed from the face of the earth.  That was in the days of Noah.  Jesus prophesied letting us know that as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the time of the coming of the son of man.  While that passage focuses on “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,” Mt. 24:38, it includes with it the reality that we are living today among the seed of Satan.  Does Satan have a seed?  Yes!  According to Genesis 3:15 Satan definitely has his own seed upon the earth and his seed and the seed of the woman, which Christ (and his seed, us) are engaged in a deadly conflict.

God first published the story of the conflict between the two seeds, not in the bible, but wrote it using the stars themselves.  The constellation of Scorpio shows a picture of a scorpion.  Above the scorpion, the symbol for Satan, is a picture of a man, Ophiucus, holding a large snake, Serpens.  The tail, stinger of the Scorpion is lifted up toward the heel of the strong man. ‘…and he shall bruise thy heel.”

Those familiar with the different species of aliens will tell you that the most insidious branch of aliens are the Reptilians.  They are depicted in just about every sci-fi movie (about aliens) ever made.  The second branch is a group simply known as Insectoids. No wonder so many space-alien movies show creatures resembling insects, usually of the scorpion variety. 

If you think we’ve taken a trip to a place where no man has boldly gone before, all you have to do is read the book of Revelation chapter nine and there you will find a description of some locusts unlike any plant eating locust you will find on earth.  In that passage reference is made to scorpions.  The scorpions are said to have power.  They are positioned as being “on the earth.” If the reference is to a natural scorpion, then the expression “on the earth” is redundant at best.

There is a conflict coming and in the last time God will reveal who His true saints are and before we leave here we will fulfill the words of Jesus in Luke 10:19, a passage that cannot be verified as having happened during any period of Church history.

Until tomorrow……

Pastor Stephen Benton

To read more current revelations from Pastor Steve, check out his book published September of 2017 on Amazon.com

                 https://smile.amazon.com/Gods-Final-Secret-Stephen-Benton/dp/1976338476/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509271792&sr=1-1&keywords=god%27s+final+secret+by+stephen+benton

Is this the fruit of the good ground hearer?

(passages taken from angels on assignment written by Charles and Frances Hunter)

People are special to God. If you want to know where God lives on this earth, look where people are

and you will find his address because God lives where people are hurting. He wants to help them. He

involves himself with the needs of people. It is when we get down on the level of human need and take

a person into our hearts and actually meet their need that something is written down in our book in

heaven.

Other things may help, but the fruit he wants is your personal love, your personal help, and your

personal concern. When you see an individual hurting and your own heart actually hurts with them, this

is when you care!

WARNING! UNBELIEF!

WARNING! UNBELIEF! God wants us to have a live awareness of what he is doing. He wants us to

believe in the supernatural, because he is the God of the supernatural. If in your heart you are standing aloof, beware! "(Therefore beware,) brothers; take care lest there be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart which refuses to cleave to, trust in and rely on Him leading

you to turn away and desert or stand aloof from the living God" (Hebrews 3:12 Amp).

You might have had a real interest in church and working for God, but there has crept into your

thinking a spirit of skepticism. You stand aloof with unbelief or doubt, both of which are enemies of

God. If you say you believe in the supernatural and give one reason why you do and nine why you

don't, your words are just hollow echoes. The warning says that you don't really believe in the

supernatural, and without even realizing it, you find yourself questioning God's ways in your mind.

It is so easy to be lulled into becoming an observer who stands aloof saying, "I can't get too involved;

I'm more or less neutral." There is no neutral ground you are either pulling one way or another.

We need to be like Peter and Paul and some of the other disciples who followed Jesus and were willing to lay down their lives for God! I'm excited to say that there has never been a time in the history of the world when God's people were more dedicated to what he is doing that they are today.

WARNING: "The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways;" (Proverbs 14:14). When you begin drifting back, long before you get totally away from God, you are interested only in those things that pertain to you, not the things of God. This is a warning sign.

WARNING! "What will we say then? Will we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" (Romans 6:1).

The grace of God is a beautiful covering, but it is not a license to sin. God's grace is something we did not earn, something we cannot buy. A person who thinks they can do what they please is rebelling

against God and skating on thin ice!

WARNING! "... Receive not the grace of God in vain" (2 Corinthians 6:1). God's grace is a gift and

should not be received in vain. Paul tells about this in connection with what God did in providing his

covering, and he gave us this warning: "For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins.

Then, in exchange, he poured God's goodness into us! As God's partners we beg you not to toss aside this marvelous message of God's great kindness." God did this for you and what a beautiful word of

assurance he is giving, but he warned us not to toss it aside for worldly pleasures. "For God says, 'Your cry came to me at a favorable time, when the doors of welcome were wide open. I helped you on a day when salvation was being offered.' Right now God is ready to welcome you. Today he is ready to save you."

Then he goes on to tell us how we can keep from tossing it aside: "We try to live in such a way that no one will ever be offended or kept back from finding the Lord by the way we act, so that no one can find fault with us and blame it on the Lord. In fact, in everything we do we try to show that we are true ministers of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21 and 6:14

TLB). Hallelujah!

Suppose you just purchased a new dishwasher for your home. You are excited about all the new

features and the many hours it will save you in your kitchen, and you are reading the instructions on

how to make it do the best job for you. You discover a little sign that says, "WARNING! For the best

and most efficient operation, do thus and so."

What would happen if you suddenly thought, "I can't keep this in my home; it may fail me!" Just for a

moment you took your eyes off of the benefits and enlarge on the word of caution and immediately all the benefits diminished in your mind!

What God has promised is the same thing for the individual who recognizes what has been done for

him and what God wants to do. God's promises and his benefits are all spelled out for him and the

equipment is superior. We are sold on how good God is and how his interest in us is told in all of his

good promises, not one word of which has he ever failed to perform. His guarantee is unlimited! But

there is still a warning sign, and it is there to make it work for you! A red light flashes at a railroad crossing when the train is coming, to prevent us from getting killed!  

A fire engine sounds a siren to warn us of its approach! An ambulance and a police car flash lights when there is danger, and the wail of their siren warns us to pull over and get out of the way. A fever warns us of sickness and infection.

All of these signals are good, and so are God's warning signs. They are just as effective to keep us from getting killed (spiritually) as the flashing lights at a railroad crossing are to keep us from getting killed physically! God loves us so much he has posted warning signs all along the lake of joy, just for our protection!

Angels on Assignment 

Author: Francis Hunter

Ref:Pg. 47