Scripture: Ephesians 6 v 11 - 13: "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."
Ever since I knew what we were up against at the end of the 70's, my concern has been to bring this truth to as many as I can reach. I never knew that demons were real, or Satan had a personal vendetta against me and all who follow the Lamb.
My first encounter with spiritual warfare started after my pastor asked me if I could take into my home a young woman with two very young children and help her. I said yes and then found out she was in hospital after attempting suicide. She recovered and moved in with her children.
She told me that her husband was a Satanist who had threatened to kill her and abuse their daughters. She needed lots of ministry and a small group of five Christians, including ignorant me, came together to pray for her.
Before we had our first prayer session she manifested a demon in church. Lyn and I took her to another room to deal with it. Lyn was an authority on casting out demons but I was suddenly very knowledgeable on the subject to my great surprise. I knew the name of the demon and started binding it and rebuking it like this was my profession!
Even stranger, this evil spirit was responding and resisting and trying to bluff its way out of trouble as I was a novice. However Lyn stepped in and together we saw that one leave with a loud groan. Gail, the victim, was very weak and spittle was coming out her mouth. We got her home and the team gathered for more prayer.
It took quite a few dramatic sessions with Gail to see her set free of seven demons. The change in her and her daughters was very strong. The Lord had dropped me in the deep end, spiritually, but He had equipped me with on the job training. I was no longer ignorant of spiritual warfare but I had much to learn, and I am still learning! You never stop learning and growing in authority.
There are those that argue that Christians cannot have demons. I have only prayed for Christians for nearly forty years and there is absolutely no doubt that being born again starts with Jesus within you pushing the demons to the surface. He is in your spirit and the demons are in your soul. When you go from darkness to light in your spirit it sends light into your soul which alarms whatever is lurking there.
It creates a disturbance in your soul, emotions, mind and will, and you have some kind of meltdown. No one understands that some demon has been given the boot by Jesus and it is panicking. You are having this panic attack but it is really the demon manifesting in your flesh. Before a demon leaves a human body it will manifest. Before Satan is cast into the lake of fire he will manifest on Earth as the Antichrist in his final attempt to outwit God.
What happens in spirit will manifest in flesh on this planet. Demons are disembodied spirits who seek a body of flesh so they can manifest. A demon of Murder will cause a person to commit horrific murders then it retreats and leaves him to face the consequences. Many murder-accused people say, "I don't know what came over me!" Some say they heard voices in their head compelling them to kill, rape, abuse, mutilate or assault their victims.
John 10 v 10: "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
The thief is Satan who has an army of demons to deploy against humanity to steal their peace, to come upon someone to influence him to kill and destroy. Jesus knew all about it and how vulnerable we are especially because we generally don't know what's going on spiritually speaking.
Yesterday, in two different phone calls, both of which were getting cut off trying to reach me, I had to deal with demonic attacks. One was experiencing fear and anxiety along with strong back pain, the other had a day filled with every kind of blockage......from no electric power, locked doors, traffic standstill, narrow miss car crash and a demon talking to her over the telephone!
In the first, through prayer calm was restored. The second was quite hair-raising. It was the first time the reality of hearing a demon threatening in its evil voice and causing the need for reinforcements of the prayer kind. Praise our Lord Jesus for His authority to enable us to bind and despatch evil spirits back to Hell.
Demons knew Jesus and He warned them not to tell people about Him. They wanted to know if He had come to send them back to Hell before the time.
Mark 5 v 12 - 13: "And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked."
The word demon is in our everyday vocabulary. We have demon bowlers, for instance, or speed demons. Some celebs have meltdowns and are described as needing to get rid of the demons in their heads. We saw some "demon bowling" during the recent Cricket World Cup in England and Wales that ended on Sunday. In the Final the two teams were tied and had to do a super over to decide the winner. England won but one commentator remarked that it was by divine intervention.
People regularly speak about spiritual things but it is without substance. It's not real to them. When we have a real encounter with a real demon it changes our perception of the Spirit realm forever. When we have a real encounter with Jesus that changes our whole lives forever too.
Demons have names like Cocaine, Heroin, Weed, Nicotine, Crystal Meth, Death Metal, Familiar Spirits (spiritualism, psychics, ancestral worship), Morpheus (morphine, death), Legion (groups of many different demons), Rebellion, Pride, Rejection, Adultery, Bitterness, Lust, Addiction, etc. All have been conquered by Jesus and we have the power and authority to set Christians free, and see Jesus fill them with the Holy Spirit who seals them against the demons returning.
Yesterday I read a report about a man in Australia whose four year old son believes he is the reincarnation of the late Princess Diana. He knows all the castles she visited and can describe Balmoral perfectly. He knows she had two sons. He said she was a princess until the sirens stopped all that!
This child has a familiar spirit of Diana. It's a demon used by spiritualists and psychic mediums that knows everything about the dead person and is very convincing. When they do seances a familiar spirit will manifest and speak through a medium and those who knew this dead relative would be deceived by it.
Jesus died to set us free. He knows how we are affected by evil spirits which may have been inherited from past generations. Exodus 20 v 3 - 6: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."
So maybe 160 years ago an ancestor made an idol and worshipped it which brought misery on four generations before God could deal with it. Many people have been set free of generational curses from ancestors who practiced Satanism, Freemasonry, Cults, Witchcraft, Buddhism, Antisemitism, and any other practice forbidden by God.
Things like Astrology, Karate and Yoga are very common and 'acceptable' practices which are manifestations of demons. The individual star signs are all demons. These are Eastern occult practices and are forbidden to Christians.
There are many TV series, movies and video games that are demonic in nature. Themes of witchcraft, vampires, zombies, violence, all in fantasy realm seem innocent but they get those demons into the soul through the senses and the mind. If these viewers or gamers have an ancestry of some cult it all comes together and can cause suicides, murders, rape, violent acts you never imagined your child could be capable of.
Think of the horrific murder of toddler James Bulger in England by two eleven year old boys. It was a demonic attack and those two are now out of prison but I doubt if those demons have left them. The objective of every demon is to destroy human personality, to destroy God's creation. Putting a demon possessed person in prison does not deliver him or her from demons. Only Jesus can do that through His followers. Prison only spares those on the outside until the person has served his time.
It is in the power of every Christian filled with the Holy Spirit to engage in spiritual warfare and fight the good fight. It's messy, its ugly, its hard work, but the rewards are wonderful. To see the change in people who have been set free of demonic bondage and filled with joy and peace just glorifies Jesus Christ. We have His authority but we don't know how to use it. I didn't know either but when the moment came I was equipped by God to challenge, bind and boot those demons out of Gail.
The war is on - drugs, terror, murder, abortion, rape, corruption in government. God says our fight is not against flesh and blood people, it is against spiritual wickedness in high places. Let us get into praying for these high places to fall and the wickedness to be bound. Jesus will show us where to go from there.
Prayer: Father God, when we are weak, Jesus adds His strength to us so we call upon His name to help each one of us stretch our faith, increase our knowledge and understanding and use our Godly authority to deal with evil spirits destroying our peace of mind. Father, we trust You in all things and know that You do answer our prayers for our nation, our children, our communities. Thank You! In Jesus' name. Amen.
