Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast: Episode 62
TRANSCRIPT
How many of you were taught that a Christian cannot be oppressed by a demon? How many were taught that if you leave the demons alone, they will leave you alone? How is that working for you? How many of your think that dealing with demons ought to be left in that weird and spooky category? If you were taught any of these you are not alone, I was right there with you. In today’s podcast we are going to talk about how dealing with demons is a normal part of our Christian life.
Welcome into today’s Hope Healing and Freedom Podcast. I’m Lee Whitman with Restoring the Foundations. In today’s podcast I want to take dealing with demons out of the weird and spooky category and put it back as a normal part of Christianity where it belongs.
Many Christians don’t realize that they can be oppressed by a demon. As a result, they do nothing to stop this oppression, which leaves them at the mercy of the demon. God wants us to come into maturity in our understanding of satan and his demons. He wants us to enforce His victory over the kingdom of darkness.
Let’s start with the first question that comes up when talking about demons. Can a Christian have a demon? Christians cannot be possessed by a demon because possession implies ownership. Christians are bought with a great price, the precious blood of Jesus, so the question of ownership has already been settled at salvation. Christians can, however, be oppressed by demons if they provide the open doors and legal ground through which the demons can work. RTF ministry to the problem areas we have talked about in these last three podcasts of the Sins of the Fathers and resulting curses, the Ungodly Beliefs, and bringing healing to the wounded places removes the legal ground so the demons have no right to continue their oppression.
Derek Prince defines demons as “invisible spiritual entities with minds, emotions, and wills of their own, in league with and under the control of satan. They are out to do his bidding and torment the people of God.” Their first job is to try to keep people from getting saved. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they will not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” This is a little off topic, but I think the church has mistakenly believed that if we present a compelling argument to an unbeliever about the gospel of Jesus Christ they will believe. We try to reason with them and convince them to accept Christ when the battle for belief is spiritual. They are being blinded by the god of this age so they can’t see the truth. Our evangelism needs to begin with strong spiritual warfare to break this hold the demons have to keep people from seeing and hearing the truth.
Back to our topic of demons. Fun, right? Once someone gets saved their job is to keep that person from maturing in their relationship with Christ. They keep dragging believers down by using the legal ground they have been given. The picture I get is like when you get stuck in the mud. You can push the gas pedal all you want but your tires are just going to spin, and you are going nowhere. That is what demons want to do with believers. Keep them spinning their wheels, mired in sinful behaviors, and not going anywhere.
A common tactic of the demonic is to keep the focus on the demons instead of on the power of God. They come at people using fear and intimidation. They want you to believe that they are more powerful than God. Or they would like you to believe the lie that if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone. Neither of those thought is true. Their only purpose is to steal, kill and destroy your life.
Demons also have the ability to put thoughts in your mind. I know you have had this happen. You are minding your own business when all of a sudden, a thought comes in your mind that causes you to be afraid or anxious or jealous or any number of other things. Did you know that the thought is not your own? The demons have the ability to interject their thoughts into our thought stream and we think these are our own thoughts.
Another common tactic of the demonic is to use accusation and condemnation to keep you stuck in the mud. Most of us have had something like this happen to us. A sinful thought or temptation comes into your mind. The thought does not have to be what many consider to be the big sins like sexual sin or stealing, things like that. It might just be the thought to make a judgement against someone else like, “Boy did you see Suzy today. She thinks she is all that and a then some.” The demons interject that thought into your thought stream, then they turn around and condemn you for making the judgement. Talk about not playing fair. The demons will never play fair. They will tempt you when you are down, when you are tired, when you are hungry, when you are lonely. Basically, they will hit you when you are the most vulnerable, then they will condemn you for having been vulnerable.
One way to recognize the demonic activity in your life is they manifest by causing our behavior to be what their function is. For example, a demon of anger will manifest causing you to be angry. A demon of bitterness will manifest causing bitterness to rise up in you. A demon of lust will cause you to lust after sexual things or after possessions that other people have been blessed with. Recognizing how the demon is trying to manifest in your life will equip you to stand in your authority against that demon and command it to leave. We have been in many ministry sessions when we could feel that a spirit of confusion was trying to hinder the ministry. We simply take authority over that spirit of confusion and command it to leave and every time the confusion in the ministry session stopped.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says “for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but [a]divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” This is a very powerful verse that we need to understand and live from. First is says that our weapons are not fleshly, but divinely powerful because we are not fighting against the powers of man. Ephesians 6:12 says “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” The second thing this verse says is that as part of our battle we have to take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ. Our thought life opens the door for the demonic. Taking every though captive puts our thoughts back under the rule and reign of God. This verse also says we are destroying speculations. What are these speculations? I think those are the “what if’s” of life. What if this lump is cancer. What if I lose my job. What if the car breaks down and we don’t have the money to fix it. What if, What if, What if. Speculations. That is a very real form of spiritual warfare because most of our what if’s cause us to live in fear and not trust God. We allow that fear to raise up against our knowledge of God being a good Father. We hardly ever have the good what if’s. What if my car never breaks down. What if I get a big raise in pay at work. No, because this is a form of spiritual warfare, the enemy will keep throwing the negative what ifs at us to keep us spinning our wheels in the mud.
We see a picture of God’s strategy for getting rid of the demons in Exodus 23:29-31. “But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land. I will give into your hands the people who live in the land, and you will drive them out before you.” This is the story of when the Israelites went into the promised land. In the land there were still all of the enemies of Israel. God in His loving kindness actually left the enemies in the land. Why did He do that? The enemies tended the land until the Israelites could take it over and tend it for themselves. God gave them the land “little by little”. Why little by little and not all at once? In order that they increase enough to take possession of the land. God does the same thing with us today. He does not drive away all of the demonic that is oppressing us because we would not be able to possess the land, He has given us. As we increase and are able to take possession, He will continue to give us more freedom.
Once we have taken back the legal ground given over to the demonic through the Sins of the Fathers, through having Ungodly Beliefs, through unhealed wounded places, then we enforce the victory Christ won for us on the cross and command the demonic to leave. The brilliance of the ministry that God gave Chester and Betsy Kylstra is that we command the demons to leave based on two things: The finished work of Christ on the Cross and your authority as a believer. Those are two things that are irrefutable to the enemy. He cannot argue that the finished work of Christ on the cross was not sufficient. He knows the power in the blood of Christ. He also cannot argue with your authority as a believer. He can try to convince you that you don’t have authority because that is what the father of lies does. He tries to get you to believe his lies. But when you know your authority as a believer, that your authority was given to you by your Father God, that it is not something that you have to earn by your behavior, that it is not based on what you do or have done but it is totally based upon the fact that you are a child of your Father God. He knows that you have authority, and he is afraid of you. And when we command the demons to leave based on those two irrefutable things, they have no choice but to go. The biggest threat to the kingdom of darkness is a believer who knows and walks in their authority.
So, dealing with demons should not be in the weird and spooky category. It is a normal part of being a Christian. Mark 16:17 says “And these signs will follow those who believe; In My name they will cast out demons.” 1 John 3:8 says, “But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.” Since we are now part of God’s family and the family business is destroying the works of the devil, then we have joined the family business and we also will destroy the works of the devil. I love James 4:7, “Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Look at what this verse says to us. First, we have to submit to God and not try to resist the devil out of our own strength. Second, it says when you resist the devil, he will flee from you. It doesn’t say he might flee, or he will flee if he wants to. No! It says he will flee. He has to do what you tell him to do based on the finished work of Christ on the cross and your authority as a believer.
It seems like much of the teaching we hear on dealing with the demonic is about playing defense. Put on the whole armor of God, I’m sure you have heard that many times. But armor is defensive. What if we as the body of Christ went on the offensive against the kingdom of darkness. What if you got up every morning and plead the blood of Jesus over yourself, your home, your family, basically over everything you have stewardship over. The blood of Jesus is an offensive weapon against the enemy. The other offensive weapon is to take up the sword of the spirit. What if when you go grocery shopping you walked through the store praying in the spirit as you shopped? You would be on the offense right there in your grocery store.
If you have recognized over the last four weeks that you need assistance in getting free from some struggle in your life, email us at ministry@restoringthefoundations.org and set up an RTF ministry session for yourself. It’s time to get out of being stuck in the muds and RTF can help.
