OTHER TEACHINGS
THE FINGER OF GOD
Written by Pastor Marcos Marrero
Published on 7/24/22
Luke 11:20 “But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”
The prophetic ministry of the Old Testament prophets was indeed a powerful one: Through Moses God
provided food and water for thousands of Israelites for decades in the wilderness, after parting the Red Sea.
Joshua brought down the walls of Jericho with the simple blowing of the trumpets, and in like manner, through many of the prophets and throughout the centuries, God moved in awesome power to demonstrate to the nation of Israel and to the rest of the world that there is no God like Jehovah. But there was one element missing that God withheld from the prophets of old; authority over the underworld or the spiritual dimension, the original dominion that Adam lost over the spiritual realm when he failed to keep God’s Word.
Mark 1:26-27 “And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, ‘What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.’”
The defining and distinct difference between the prophets of the Old Testament and the New Testament prophets and saints was the authority given to us over the devil himself.
Luke 10:19 “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
Notice that this authority of the finger of God is connected to us trampling under our feet.
After recognizing this new dimension of authority in the ministry of Jesus over the spiritual realm, the Pharisees tried to nullify it by declaring the ridiculous idea that Jesus’ power over the demonic realm originated from Beelzebub or Satan himself. Jesus shot this idea down instantly.
Luke 11:18 “If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say I cast out demons by Beelzebub.”
It is really hard for us to comprehend the tremendous shift of power that occurred when Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead. When Lucifer was created, he was the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty; he was in Eden the garden of God and clothed with an armor of every precious stone: Ezekiel 28:12-15. After God kicked him out of heaven and stripped him of his armor, Satan stole from Adam the first human, the dominion that God gave to Adam over the creatures of the sea and the fowls of the air and the cattle of the earth and the creeping things. All symbolic of the spiritual hierarchy that have rule over the earth. When Jesus died on the cross He stripped Satan naked and made a spectacle of him and all his minions.
Colossians 2:13-15 “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the circumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him (Jesus), having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwritten of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having DISARMED principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it (the cross).”
After Satan’s humiliating defeat on the cross, all that was left to him is the lie that he is the deceiver in chief, and it is of his nature. He is naked and without armor, the only vesture left to him is the cloak of deception. The kingdom of God—the church—which Jesus established right in front of the gates of hell, exists to preach and to practice the Gospel of the kingdom of God with the demonstration of the power of the finger of God to expose and to dispose of demonic deception.
Luke 11:23 “He who is not with me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”
Unity is the key for the exercising of this authority of the finger of God. Satan is a predator, the law of predatory behavior dictates that in order to steal you have to separate and divide. The five fingers on the hand represent the church five-fold ministry: The apostolic, the prophetic, the evangelizing, the pastors and the teaching ministries, all have to be in agreement with the teaching of Jesus, if we are not in agreement with Jesus then we are against Him.
The foundation of the authority given to the church is in the victory of Jesus over Satan on the cross; spiritual warfare reveals the manifestation of that power as the church pulls down demonic strongholds over cities, families and individuals.
Luke 11:22 “But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.”
That is exactly what Jesus did to Satan on the cross, He overcame him and took away all his armor in which he trusted and then divided the spoils. That is what the churches should be doing today, sadly we are not. How many ministers begin their ministry in the church without a clue in how to drive a demon out of one of their members who is afflicted by the devil, let alone to challenge the principalities that wield power over the geographical areas assigned to their church.
Luke 11:24-26 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
There is a lot to learn from the above three verses about spiritual warfare. Scripture declares that there is no rest for the wicked. A demon without a human host to hide in is in continued torment, seeking rest and finding none. Demons will not stop trying to get a foothold inside a human host.
There are ranks in the spiritual dimension and there is unity in their goal to find a place of rest. Interesting that Jesus tells us that demons see the physical bodies of their previous victims as their house. ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ Also, that those who have been delivered from demonic oppression have their house or life swept and put in order only to fall victim again to more and more powerful demonic strongholds.
Matthew 12:39-42 “…An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.”
Jesus taught the above verses in Matthew right before the story about the unclean spirit finding no place of rest and getting higher ranking demons to help him. The truth is that there is no higher-ranking authority than the name of Jesus and that because of what He accomplished on the cross. His name is higher than Solomon’s Jonah’s and everybody else.
ALL AUTHORITY is given to Jesus. The sign of Jonah and the finger of God all testify to the authority given to the church in the name of Jesus. Man made religion teaches how to sweep and clean the house. The Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us how to come to the cross and die daily to self.
Psalm 144:1 “Blessed be the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle—My lovingkindness and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer, my shield and the One in whom I take refuge, who subdues my people under me.”
As long us our self-life is prostrated at the foot of the cross—dying to self and living for God—we are protected from the evil one, safe and secure in this hope:
Psalm 8:6-8 “You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen—even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas.”
The original dominion that God gave to Adam in the Garden has been restored to us through the Last Adam—Jesus—when He rose from the Garden tomb. For our God has given to Jesus a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow; even those of the highest-ranking creatures in all of the universe, for there is no other name under heaven by which a human can be saved.
Psalm 8:3 “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained.”
God’s handy work was demonstrated by Jesus while driving out unclean spirits with the finger of God and after dying for our sins on the cross Jesus completed His handy work by putting everything under our human feet.
When Lucifer was created everything that comprised his entire personhood had a beginning. So that when iniquity was found in Lucifer all the wisdom, perfection and beauty that he had been clothed with was removed from him for it was not in his original nature, after he chose to be like God instead of being with God.
When God created the physical body of Adam, He used clay to make the shape of the man, but nothing in the clay had, not even a hint of life in it. God had to provide the life for the man that He created, and that life was in the breath of God that went into Adam’s nostrils and became blood in him, for as Moses told us, the life is in the blood. All humans are made in the image of God and worthy of redemption because they carry within them a life that is eternal.
The Scriptures teach that the phrase ‘The Finger of God’ refers to something so great and awesome in nature that only an all-powerful and all-knowing God could accomplish.
Psalm 150:6 “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!”
In your breath is the eternal life that God has given to you and God wants it back, not for Himself for He is not in need of anything. He is a God who loves to add goodness and to multiply blessings to all His children, but first we need to receive Jesus as our Savior so that we will be sure to spend eternity with Him.
The life is in the breath and the blood is activated by the words that we confess:
Romans 10:9-11 “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’”