At this very moment the hand of God’s judgment comes down upon you and you will be blind—so blind you won’t even be able to see the light of the sun.” As Paul spoke these words, a shadowy mist and darkness came over the sorcerer, leaving him blind and groping about, begging someone to lead him around by the hand. Acts 13:11 TPT

Release this man over to Satan for the destruction of his rebellious flesh, in hope that his spirit may be rescued and restored in the day of the Lord. Boasting over your tolerance of sin is inappropriate. Don’t you understand that even a small compromise with sin permeates the entire fellowship, just as a little leaven permeates a batch of dough? So remove every trace of your “leaven” of compromise with sin so that you might become new and pure again. For indeed, you are clean because Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. 1 Corinthians 5:5-7 TPT

Such as Hymenaeus and Alexander who have fallen away. I have delivered them both over to Satan to be rid of them and to teach them to no longer blaspheme! 1 Timothy 1:20

For the latter two scriptures, several commentaries suggest that these have to do with excommunication from the community of believers the unrepentant who have abused the grace of God by engaging in heinous conduct.

Matthew 18:15-17 – If your fellow believer sins against you, you must go to that one privately and attempt to resolve the matter. If he responds, your relationship is restored. But if his heart is closed to you, then go to him again, taking one or two others with you. You’ll be fulfilling what the Scripture teaches when it says, ‘Every word may be verified by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ And if he refuses to listen, then share the issue with the congregation in hopes of restoration. If he still refuses to respond, even to the church, then you must disregard him as though he were an outsider, on the same level as an unrepentant sinner.

A closer look however suggests more. When we consider Job 2:6, it appears that committed just as the Lord declared in John 20:23, certain in the body of Christ were conferred with power over Satan to dispossess him from bodies of men, so also to deliver up bodies of men to his hand for temporal chastisements.

In 1 Timothy 1:20 (TPT) – such as Hymenaeus and Alexander who have fallen away. I have delivered them both over to Satan to be rid of them and to teach them to no longer blaspheme!

These were erring believers who by conduct and utterances were blaspheming, capable of derailing the faith of others!

1 Corinthians 5:3-7 (TPT) – Even though I am physically far away from you, my spirit is present with you. And as one who is present with you, I have already evaluated and judged the perpetrator. So call a meeting, and when you gather together in the name of our Lord Jesus, and you know my spirit is present with you in the infinite power of our Lord Jesus, release this man over to Satan for the destruction of his rebellious flesh, in hope that his spirit may be rescued and restored in the day of the Lord. Boasting over your tolerance of sin is inappropriate. Don’t you understand that even a small compromise with sin permeates the entire fellowship, just as a little leaven permeates a batch of dough? So remove every trace of your “leaven” of compromise with sin so that you might become new and pure again. For indeed, you are clean because Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.

We should not forget the saboteurs of God’s plan for His church at the very beginning, Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11 (TPT)

Now, a man named Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, likewise sold their farm. They conspired to secretly keep back for themselves a portion of the proceeds. So when Ananias brought the money to the apostles, it was only a portion of the entire sale. God revealed their secret to Peter, so he said to him, “Ananias, why did you let Satan fill your heart and make you think you could lie to the Holy Spirit? You only pretended to give it all, yet you hid back part of the proceeds from the sale of your property to keep for yourselves. Before you sold it, wasn’t it yours to sell or to keep? And after you sold it, wasn’t the money entirely at your disposal? How could you plot such a thing in your heart? You haven’t lied to people; you’ve lied to God!” The moment Ananias heard those words, he fell over dead. Everyone was terrified when they heard what had happened. Some young men came in and removed the body and buried him. Three hours later, his wife came into the room, with no clue what had happened to her husband. Peter said to her, “Tell me, were the two of you paid this amount for the sale of your land?” Sapphira said, “Yes, that’s how much it was.” Peter told her, “Why have you agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? I hear the footsteps of those who buried your husband at the door—they’re coming here to bury you too!” At that moment she dropped dead at Peter’s feet. When the young men came in, she was already dead, so they carried her out and buried her next to her husband. The entire church was seized with a powerful sense of the fear of God, which came over all who heard what had happened.

Did the Lord withdraw such power of discipline to keep His house pure or did we compromise with sin, elevating self above God, that we abolished this power of discipline? Will the Lord restore that power again?

If and when He does and we fail to cut our excesses in sin and worldliness, we will have set the church up for worse and bloody purging from God using the enemies of the church as the instrument of discipline of the church. God did it in Israel when they failed repeatedly to heed His warnings. Same is just around the corner in the fullness for the church in this nation! Oh let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

But just as the power of discipline was granted to purify the church, so was it granted to deal with those under Satan’s rule who would set themselves as stumbling blocks to kingdom purpose. We must not be bashful to do the same against those who would resist the deliverance of souls of men from Satan’s tyranny.

Acts 13:6-12 (TPT) – From there they crossed the island as far as Paphos, where they encountered a Jewish false prophet, a sorcerer named Elymas, who also went by the name of “son of Jesus.” He had gained influence as the spiritual advisor to the regional governor, Sergius Paulus, considered by many to be a wise and intelligent leader. The governor requested a meeting with Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the message of God’s word. But Elymas, whose name means “sorcerer,” stood up against them and tried to prevent the governor from believing their message. Saul, also known as Paul, stared into his eyes and rebuked him. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he said, “You son of the devil! You are full of every form of fraud and deceit and an enemy of all that is right. When will you stop perverting the truth of God into lies? At this very moment the hand of God’s judgment comes down upon you and you will be blind—so blind you won’t even be able to see the light of the sun.” As Paul spoke these words, a shadowy mist and darkness came over the sorcerer, leaving him blind and groping about, begging someone to lead him around by the hand. When the governor witnessed this, he believed and was awestruck by the power of the message of the Lord.

Our God has not changed, we have. If the church will survive the impending onslaught of the prince of the power of the air through his agent rulers of the political world, we must clean up our acts and take on the weapons of warfare given us, ready to war with the virtues of faith and a clean conscience. Selah.