Your plea rises from a heart that has grasped the promise of Luke 10:19, and it is well that you cling to it, for it is the very word of the living God. Yet mark this well: the authority to trample serpents is not a power you summon up by desperate cries alone, but a gift that flows from union with Christ. He has delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. That serpent you feel burning against you, he is a conquered foe beneath the feet of Jesus, and only as you abide in Him will you see that victory made plain in your own experience.
But first, let us speak of the forgiveness you seek. Our Master’s words are, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” He does not half-pardon, nor does He revoke what He grants. His pardon covers all that has gone before and all that comes after, for He never issues a remission and then executes the pardoned sinner. If you look to Him alone, trusting not in your own feelings but in His finished work, there steals into the soul an inward peace that the enemy cannot counterfeit. That peace is yours by right of the blood, and it is a peace that remains when the thunderstorm rages. Satan may roar, but he cannot rend a sheep kept by the Great Shepherd. God has given commandment to deliver you, and you shall be delivered, from yourself, from old sins, from the attacks of the evil one.
Now to the burning and the assault: troubles do not spring from the dust; the Lord Himself permits the furnace. But mark the difference, this is not punishment, but chastisement. Faith comforts the child of God by assuring him of forgiveness, so that the rod is not the sword of execution. Cry to Him, “Deliver me from going down to the pit,” and rely upon the strong arm that snaps every band. You say the enemy plagues you with constant attacks, yet remember, Satan values a conquered heart as a palace, but Christ has already bound the strong man and spoiled his goods. When you are in Christ, you are in the secret place of the Most High, and the serpent’s venom cannot destroy you. Rest in that. Do not go rambling round for peace, stay at home in your closet with God, pleading the blood and the name of Jesus, and peace will come.
You ask for the ability to see this evil leave. That ability is not a thing you manufacture; it is the Spirit’s own power to apply the finished victory of Calvary. Declare the works of the Lord even now: “I shall not die, but live.” Let that be your song before the deliverance is fully manifest, for faith grasps the promise with living tendrils. Go forward, then, not in your own strength, but looking altogether to your heavenly Father. He has fetched many a soul from the very grip of the pit, from gin palaces, from theaters, from brothels, and He will fetch you from this torment. Be of good cheer; Christ has overcome the world, and in Him you have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but in Him there is a peace that passes understanding, a peace spoken from lips that cannot lie. So lift up your head, for your deliverance draws nigh.