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Aw, c'mon. Are
demons really real? I don't think so.
Some people don't
think demons are real at all. But that just flies in the face of the
specific command of our Lord in the Great Commission in Mark 16:15-18
that we are to go into all the world and cast demons out of people.
It also flies in the face of the normal daily experience of
Christians all over the world that are wrestling with spiritual
powers and principalities and wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12).
The New Testament sure spends a lot of time training us up and
explaining that our battle is NOT against flesh and blood for it to
all be worthless because demons don't really exist. I can assure you
that they do and that they're real and that the vast majority of
people (even Christians) have stuff messing with them (or rooted in
deeply) that needs to be demolished with prejudice.
If I haven't
convinced you yet, then put your money where your mouth is and go
play with a Ouija board. If demons aren't real then who is it that's
talking to all the witches and warlocks loose in our public schools?
Who is telling the psychics on TV details about dead people? Yeah,
some of that stuff is fake, but some of it is real, too. There IS a
war between good and evil and I can't hardly see how you can believe
in Jesus and angels and not think demons and satan are real. And if
they're real, they're doing stuff to slow us down, they're not just
hanging around Ouija boards in toy stores. Go to any third world
country and ask them if they've seen demons and KNOW that they are
real! For years I didn't believe they were real and, despite
being a Christian, when the Lord gave me the gift of discernment of
spirits, I realized how much they had been oppressing me for years
– including lust and gluttony and sloth and love of money and
fear and others. I wasn't free until I learned how to get them off
and keep them off.
Ok, so let's make
a list of stuff and see if you think it comes from your own flawed
nature or from the enemy. I don't believe demons can possess
Christians, but they can sure oppress them. They surely do hang
around and mess with us and try to gain an entry. Else why would the
Lord urge us to keep watch over our houses so that the enemy can't
return stronger? Some Christians open all the doors, throw their arms
around them and give them the best seat in the house!
Mark 12:43-45 - When
the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry
places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return
into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth
it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with
himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter
in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the
first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
Get that? You can
get free from them and then they can come back if you're not
watching. Even if the house is swept clean and in order. Have you
ever met a non-Christian whose “house” was swept clean and
in order? That requires the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself is
warning Christians here that they can come back – and they will
probably come back worse! So it's possible that a person could find
Christ, get saved, get cleaned out, get lazy and they would come back
worse? Yes. There's no other way to explain the behavior of some
Christians! Forget your theoretical models and look around! We're
riddled with badness!
Not sure yet? Ok,
so Fear is a spirit and it's not from God.
Romans 8:15 - For
you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear,
but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba,
Father."
2 Timothy 1:7 -
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of
love, and of a sound mind.
So if you have one
of these, the Word of God says it's a spirit and it's not from God.
And since you only have ONE spirit yourself and it's not a spirit of
fear, if you DO have a spirit of fear it's from an external source
(that's not God.)
So if we have
people in the church that have any of these, it's a spirit and it's
not from God.
Anxiety or panic
attacks, phobias of all kinds, nightmares, night terrors, visions of
demons or monsters, depression, suicidal thoughts, manic depression
and others.
Clearly the result
of all of these is that they can kill, steal and destroy your life
and quality of life (John 10:10) – and in a Christian, destroy
their witness and effectiveness for the Gospel. Since that is the
same goal as the demons, shouldn't it be obvious that fear is a
spirit? Who benefits most if a Christian is living in fear? Gotta be
the bad guys. Didn't come from God – He wants the exact
opposite. He wants peace and rest and joy and power and a sound mind.
So it had to come from somewhere, cause the Word of God says it's a
SPIRIT – not a chemical imbalance or a bad habit or a random
thought. Is the Bible the infallible, inerrant Word of God or isn't
it? Is it reliable and true or isn't it?
IF the Bible is
true and we say we're Christians, THEN we should not seek to explain
things away by other means.
IF the Bible says
fear is a spirit, THEN it must be so.
IF Christians
exhibit spirits of fear oppressing them, THEN demons really CAN mess
with Christians.
IF Christians
exhibit spirits of fear oppressing them, THEN it's because we allowed
them back in.
IF we allowed them
in, THEN it's probably because we got lazy and didn't guard the doors
(or thought we were invulnerable or believed that demons weren't real anyway).
IF we have
authority to kick them out, THEN we need to get to doing it as fast
as possible!
IF we need to
break the yokes of oppression, THEN we need to start in the churches.
In the early days
of scientific exploration, the dominant method was philosophical.
Guys with big brains would sit around a table arguing about how many
teeth a horse had. All kinds of theories would be advanced about what
must surely be the way a horse's teeth would look and work.
Eventually some genius just got up from the table and went and found
a horse and looked in its mouth! And observational science was born.
In the church,
we've kind of been doing the same thing. We build our philosophical
structures based on our interpretations of scriptures or the
doctrines of our denominations that were handed down to us or our own
preconceptions and fleshly opinions. Then we make affirmative
statements with absolutely finality. But maybe we should just get up
from the table and go look around. What is working and what's not?
What is the REAL state of the church “union”? Are we
winning this war or aren't we?
If we did, we
would see that the people of God are shackled and yoked and
spiritually oppressed by the forces of darkness. How else can you
explain these?
|
I John 4:3Rebellion
Witchcraft
Unbelief
Self-exaltation
Occult practices
Magic |
Romans 8:11
Stupor
Sleepiness
Stupidity
Laziness
Lethargy
Apnea
Sluggishness
Confusion |
Romans 8:15
Bondage
Gluttony
Obesity
Addiction
Anorexia
Bulemia
Phobias
Despair
Fatigue |
Mark 9:17-29
Mental illness
Insanity
Seizures/Epilepsy
Multiple personalities
Hyperactivity
Self-mutilation
Just to list a few!! |
So, you say these
are just acts of nature or behaviors or habits or just generalized
sin? Then you must believe that angels aren't real and that God can't
heal people and nobody can hear the still, small voice of the Holy
Spirit. There is no other alternative. If one side can bless
you, the other side can curse you. If one side can whisper to you,
they both can. If you can be filled with the Holy Spirit, you can be
just as filled with evil.
YOU CANNOT
BELIEVE THERE IS A WAR BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL
AND THEN DENY
ONE SIDE HAS ANY INFLUENCE!!
IF there is a war
between Good and Evil, THEN both sides have weapons.
IF the war between
Good and Evil is over, THEN you sure better hope and believe that
GOOD won.
IF Good won, THEN
why the heck is it so dark out there!?!?
IF Good won, THEN
why can't we keep kids in church? Why are we addicted to the world?
IF Good won, THEN
what's keeping us from preaching the Gospel to all nations already?
IF Good won, THEN
why do we start a whole new denomination EVERY TWO DAYS?
IF Good won, THEN
why are Christians sick mentally and physically and emotionally?
IF Good won, THEN
why aren't the blessings of Deut. 28 in full effect? (In fact, we're
seeing the opposite!)
IF the outcome is
certain, but the battle is in our hands, THEN we better start
shooting at something!!
It just flies in
the face of the blatantly obvious observations around us. We are
getting creamed by the darkness! Inside and outside the churches, the
badness is closing in. How did spiritual evil get such a strong
foothold on this country and on our own lives? Probably because we
started preaching that demons weren't real and couldn't oppress
Christians. That the war was over and we'd already won. Now who has
benefitted most from that bit of theology? Has it resulted in
Christians who are free and living victoriously? Has it resulted in
transformations of towns and countries for God? No. It has resulted
in week, oblivious, sickly, addicted, angry, divorced, oppressed
Christians who are dropping out of church in droves because there is
nothing there to really help them!
Now, given the
state of things around you, how can it possibly be true that the
battle is over? Did Jesus win the victory? YES!!! The outcome
is certain. But have we claimed it, embraced it fully and are walking
in His power? NO!!!! If we were, the Christians would be
FREE! And they're not. They're just not. For Pete's sake, we
have people that are more addicted to football or NASCAR than to
Jesus! We have witches in our youth groups and nobody even
notices. We have satanists sitting on the boards of our churches. We
have pedophiles as priests and youth pastors. We have people cursing
the pastor and the church in false tongues and nobody knows.
What happened to
the gift of discernment of spirits? (I Corin. 12:10) How come
nobody asks for that one anymore?! If there is a war and somebody is
shooting at you, wouldn't you want to see them so you can fight back?
Particularly if you know your weapons are great and you could crush
them like a bug and free lots of other people. There is no Goliath of
hell that can stand against a fearless David full of Jesus and armed
with wisdom and discernment of spirits.
People say we
should just focus on love and not bring glory to satan by all this
talk of demons. What?! Whose idea would that be?! This is a
WAR! The Pentagon is going to have a strategy room where they
get together but they NEVER talk about the enemy for fear of
accidentally glorifying them and making it look like they're on the
wrong team?! NO! They're going to learn where they are
and how they act and how to best defeat them. They're going to assess
their own strengths, amass forces in the places under attack, improve
weapons systems that can counter the weapons of the enemy.
They're going to know how they think, what they eat, how they smell,
when they sleep, where they hide – everything! They are never
going to spend ONE SECOND debating about whether by gathering
intelligence on how to crush the enemy they might be accidentally
worshipping them! That's just dopey. In fact, it's a lie from the pit
designed to keep us from talking about demons at all. Who benefits
most from us avoiding the whole subject? Not Jesus. He didn't avoid
it. He wasn't scared of them. He trained up His disciples on how to
handle them and then sent them out to crush them. In fact, He
COMMANDED us to go crush them in the Great Commission. It's not
the Pick and Choose Commission. It's not the If-It-Fits-With-My-Theology
Commission. It's the GREAT Commission. Be like Jesus. Go and crush
the badness! We're getting creamed out there because of so many
people that insist the enemy isn't even real or that it's wrong of us
to go after them!
I know, I've heard
it, you're going to say that the Great Commission in Matthew doesn't
say anything about casting out demons and that some scholars don't
think Mark 16:9-20 was part of the original manuscripts. Well, tough
beans! It made it into the King James and you assert that this
is the Authorized, inspired, infallible Word of God so you're stuck
with it. You can't say the Bible is infallible and then dismiss the
parts you are uncomfortable with as not being pure. Either God wanted
it in there or He didn't. If it should be taken out, then what else
would you like to edit out? Maybe the whole book of Revelation
where we CLEARLY see demons coming out of the Abyss and torturing
anybody that has taken the mark of the beast (Rev. 9). Surely some of
them prayed the salvation prayer at summer camp in 8th grade, but
have now chickened out and taken the mark. Are they Christians or
aren't they? Are they oppressed by demons or aren't they? Are demons
real or aren't they? Is the Bible the Word of God or isn't it?
If I didn't
convince you, you better stop reading now. It's just going to make
your head hurt more.
OK!! Fine! You
win. I get it. Demons are real. So what do we do about it?!
If you don't have
Jesus in your heart, then you are defenseless against the badness.
You better lay everything down and beg for Him to take over right
now. And you better mean ALL, not SOME of your life. He's a King,
pray with respect. He's not fire insurance, He's Lord. Jesus is the
Savior and He died so that His blood could protect you from sin and
from the enemy. Tell Jesus you're a sinner, say you're sorry and ask
Him to free you of everything messing with you and take over ALL of
your life right now. Go ahead, ask Him. He'll do it. He wants you.
He's been calling you. How long are you going to put Him off? How
long do you want to wait to be free? Believe He is big enough to
break all the chains that bind you. In the Name of Jesus and by His
redeeming Blood. Amen.
Whether you needed
that or not, start praying for the gift of discernment of spirits
– and don't stop. Maybe He'll give it you a lot or maybe a
little, but ALL Christians need as much as they can get. The gifts
aren't on/off switches, they are dials. As soon as you get SOME Holy
Spirit in you, all your dials move off of zero. How much they move
depends on your desire and the Lord's willingness. But the Holy
Spirit in you can recognize all the other spirits around. It's just a
matter of you listening really well. He'll teach you how
to use it and what to do with it if you'll listen. Some people sense
the spirits in a vague way and some people see snarling black things
sitting on people and can smell them and feel them in the spirit.
Some people see them with their eyes open in the “natural”
and can't shut it off. That one can put you living under a bridge
smoking crack to make it stop if God doesn't help. Just ask for
whatever He wants to give you and don't hold back or be afraid. He
knows what He's doing.
In the meantime,
you have to now how to deal with the stuff in your own head. We all
hear things, we just mostly think it's us, but then we look back
later and think, “What was I thinking? That was a HORRIBLE
idea!” Or sometimes we look back and realize that it was
so beautiful and perfect and divinely inspired that it HAD to be God.
There are only
three choices when you hear something in your head. It's either YOU,
the white hats or the black hats. Now, you and the bad guys can sound
a lot a like – cause neither of you are holy. And when they
whisper in your ear they always put an “I” in front of
stuff to make you think it's your idea. (“I'm gonna get even
with that guy!” “I'm the best singer here.” “I
could be like God!”) But what they are suggesting to you will
always be anti-Christ in some way when projected out.
That is, we're to
take captive every thought (2 Corin. 10:5), so when something pops
into your head, just ask yourself, “Who is glorified most if I
follow through with that?” If it's going to glorify you OR the
enemy, then demolish it (crush with prejudice) in the name of Jesus
and refuse it. “If you resist, he will flee.” (James
4:7) He who? The enemy? Yep. My own thoughts and wants and
selfish desires? Yep. Works the same way (Rom. 8:13). In fact,
if you resist the Holy Spirit, he will flee, too. If you harden your
heart toward God, you won't be able to hear Him either (Job 9:4, Ps.
95:8, Prov. 28:14, Heb. 3:8, Heb. 4:7).
You need to have
an armor-plated, indestructible, unbreakable, impenetrably hard heart
– but just to the right stuff. It needs to be tender toward God
and His still, small voice and rock hard to everything else –
including your own wants and thoughts and pride and self. Only in
this way can He direct ALL your paths. (I Corin. 14:20) Toward malice
be as innocents, but toward God be mature and experienced. And
regardless of the black hats, there's stuff in YOU that qualifies as “malice.”
Why is it
important that we be cleansed of all the bad stuff?
I Corinthians 10:20-21
But I [say],
that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to
devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have
fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord,
and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table,
and of the table of devils.
You can't play for
both teams. You can't play footsies with the badness and walk with
God in righteousness and purity. Pick a side and stick to it. Ask the
Lord to help you take control of your own thoughts and turn your mind
into the mind of Christ. Ask Him to let you see through His eyes, so
that you see the temptations of the world the way He does. If you
burst into tears for the salvation of these poor girls on the
“Fantasy Ranch” billboard, it will be real hard to get overheated.
There are a whole
bunch of books and programs out there that can help you get all
cleaned out. Sometimes they're called Deliverance ministries or
Theophostics or some other name. The Blood of Jesus is sufficient, so
just stand on your authority and do what the disciples did, demand
that it go RIGHT NOW in the name of Jesus. And expect results.
More on this in
other chapters.
Use freely, but
without changes and retain web links.www.FellowshipOfTheMartyrs.com
– fotm@fellowshipofthemartyrs.com
Verses
about witchcraft, sorcery, divination and other stuff God hates.
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