Proverbs 6:30-31 says, “Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry, but if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.”
If the thief has stolen your job, stolen your peace, stolen your joy, stolen favor from you in the eyes of your family and friends, and he is stealing your money, then welcome to the club. You aren’t alone.

However, the thief has been found and identified here, and his name is Satan. He is constantly at work to destroy lives in any way he can. But we can stop him. As Holy Spirit filled believers, Jesus gave us authority to bind his power against us and cast him out.
So many believers are either ignorant of this fact, or they are afraid to take action against Satan, for fear of what he will do to them. You may even be one of those people who are saying, “I’m in no position to antagonize the devil!”

Hosea 4:6 says in part, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge….” Did you notice that God said “MY PEOPLE”? These are people that God sees as having a relationship with Him. Yet they are destroyed because they lack the knowledge of how to stop Satan in his tracks. But Jesus clearly told his disciples how to deal with the devil….CAST HIM OUT!!  (you may say, OOOOH!  We don’t do that in our church!)
He will continue to meddle in your affairs until you take your God-given authority over him and make him leave. One thing I guarantee you; getting saved will not get the devil off your back. In fact, he will come against you even more, because the moment you give your life to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you become an enemy to Satan. While you were yet in the world, unsaved, you were no threat to the devil, so he had no need to bother you. After all, you were already his anyway, headed for hell right along with him.

But when Jesus comes into your life, from that moment on, the war is on against you. He will come against you to thwart everything you do, whether it’s holding down a job, raising a family, keeping a marriage together, or whatever you put your hand to. The devil’s hand is against you in everything you do. He wants to steal your peace, your joy, your finances, your family, your health, and most of all, your walk with God. The devil knows he can’t touch God, even though he would like to. He isn’t that dumb. So he has another plan; if he can’t touch God, he will come against His children. And if you are saved, then,that’s YOU!
Why then, do you think it an unusual thing that the devil is trying to take out the bottom of your bucket? After all, Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. But I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” The devil is just doing to you what he is known for. He is a thief, a murder, and a destroyer. He can’t do anything else. That’s all he knows how to do. He’s an equal-opportunity destroyer. Everyone gets their chance to be destroyed by him.
So many Christians are attacked by the devil, and stand there in shock, saying, “I’m saved. This isn’t supposed to be happening to me! I thought Jesus was going to take care of me, what’s going on? My family is being attacked, I’ve lost my job, my health is not good, I never had these problems before. Doesn’t God care what is happening to me?”
Yes, God cares what is happening to you! That’s why Jesus gave you the authority to stop the devil from destroying you! But He won’t do it for you.

It’s like God loaded up a big gun that can stop the devil cold in his tracks. You cry out to God and say,” Help, Jesus! ” Jesus shows up and blows the devil away, and sets you free from his oppression, and hands you the big gun and leaves. Then, later, the devil recovers and comes back and attacks again. You cry out, “Help, Jesus!” And Jesus shows up and says, What do you want me to do? “Oh, Lord, shoot the devil again and make him leave me alone!” And Jesus said, “Shoot him yerself, partner, you have the gun!”
Well, that’s an over-simplification, to be sure, but you get the point. Jesus taught His disciples and gave them power over all the works of the devil, and left. He went back to Heaven to sit at the right hand of God. Now, if you are a disciple of Christ Jesus, then you have also been granted that power over the devil. But just having the power isn’t enough! You have to use it!
 
Just having a Bible on your living room table doesn’t give you a lick of power over the devil. The power comes from having a living, breathing, day-to-day relationship with God. That relationship comes from daily prayer, study of God’s word, and meditation on His words, and obedience to what Jesus taught. And the devil knows that every Holy Ghost filled child of God has that power. He just hopes you will never use it against him.
If the devil can convince you that you aren’t “worthy” to be a child of God, for example, he can defeat you. If he can keep you so tied up taking care of the world’s affairs that you don’t take time to nurture that relationship with God, he can defeat you. If he can afflict you with poverty, sickness, depression, so that you lose faith in God, he can defeat you. If you are ignorant to what God’s word says about your authority over the devil’s powers, he can defeat you. For as many excuses that you can make for not getting close to God and staying there in His presence, the devil can come up with ways to defeat you.
However, there’s hope. There’s real hope. Where? Is it out there somewhere that you can get your hands on? Yes. In fact, it’s probably sitting right under your nose collecting dust. It’s in the Holy Bible. Get in it, read it, study it, devour it daily and find out what an awesome gift God gave us in His word. In it is the answer to every problem you face, whether it’s about your health, your marriage, your children, your finances, or even what to do if your hard drive crashes on your computer. Do I mean as in First Thessalonians 5:18 “In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you“?? “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” (Romans 8:37) Don’t just stand there and let the devil steal from you! Fight back! Jesus gave us a sword to do warfare with, it’s called “THE WORD OF GOD” USE IT!!!!
There is a story in Luke 19:12-13 that I would like to share with you. “He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I return.” Now, as you know, when an army conquers another army, they often leave an occupational force behind. That’s not to win the war over again, no, it’s already been won. The occupiers stay back there to enforce their law upon the occupied land, to keep it in control and under their dominion.

 Now, when Jesus defeated Satan on the cross, He stripped the devil of all his authority. The devil still possesses great power, but has no authority. Do you see and understand that? The devil still has power, just no authority to use it. Matthew 28:17-20 says, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”

What that means, therefore, is that since Jesus returned again to heaven, the line of authority has been passed to His disciples right down the line to today. He conferred his power and authority to us to keep the devil “occupied”. The problem is, the devil has been keeping too many Christians occupied with coping with the junk he puts on us.

Jesus didn’t say to “cope” with the devil. He said  “Cast him OUT!”
Until you get so fed up with the devil’s junk that you jump up and take your authority in Jesus’ name, you will continue to be harassed continually by him. There first has to come a day that you will say, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, ALREADY! Is today your day?