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HOW TO OVERCOME THE STRONGMAN
In Luke's Gospel, He speaks of overcoming (nikao) the strongman so that his palace can be invaded and his goods spoiled. This not only is a significant spiritual warfare passage, but it could reasonably be taken to apply to multi-leveled demonic activity. The incident begins with grand -level spiritual warfare as Jesus casts a demon out of a mute (Luke 11:14). But Jesus then goes on to talk about Satan's kingdom (Luke 11:18) and a palace (Luke 11:21) and Beelzebub who is a high prince of demons but ranked under Satan himself. This could be seen as an escalation of Jesus' scope of conquering or overcoming. In the parallel passages on the strongman in Matthew and Mark, Jesus does not use the word for 'overcome,' but the word for 'bind' (see Matt. 12:29 and Mark 3:27). It is the same word used in Matthew 16:19 where Jesus says, 'Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.' We are justified, therefore, to use interchangeably the terms 'overcome,' 'conquer' or 'bind' when we describe our activity in taking the offensive against the enemy in spiritual warfare.