Satan uses deceptive lies to begin his progression from influence to attachment, to infestation, to possession. Notice his steps:
1-Gains a foothold into your thoughts outside of God’s Word, then proceeds to encourage you to attach affections to those thoughts
2-Provides you with many false reasons and arguments to justify your disobedience and rebellion and even provides other people to encourage you to do wrong
3-Influences you to use your imagination to execute a plan that will enable you to carry out your desires
4-Your affections and reasonings are now so strong that you use your ‘will-power’ to silence your conscience that is trying to tell you of the wrong
5-Your desires, affections, imaginations now are easily turned into actions and deeds, and sin is committed
6-Sin brings forth spiritual death, and begins its cancerous deterioration of the soul and body
7-Repeated and habitual disobedience brings enslavement with guilt, shame, condemnation, and many times, humiliation, destruction and even physical death
Demonic spirits influence, attach, infest, and then possess, as follows:
a-Demons influence you to think outside of the Word of God
b-Demons know when you are entertaining their rebellious thoughts and stay very close to you, encouraging feelings in agreement with those thoughts
c-Demons watch your behavior and can feel your emotional energy toward any rebellion, and readily input arguments for doing wrong
d-Demons are experts at encouraging you to imagine scenarios where you are acting upon your affectionate thoughts
e-Demons provide people and circumstances to help quiet the voice of your conscience with just the right justifications for doing wrong
f-Demons attach themselves to your rebellious thoughts and emotions as soon as you act them out in words and deeds (stronghold)
g-Demons now go to work, helping you make this disobedient action into a life pattern or enslavement (infestation), slowly destroying your life
h-Demons take you further and further into your destructive lifestyle until you become possessed, quickening the destruction of your life and of others
You can look back on your life and see each of the above steps in every sinful thing that you have ever done in disagreement with God’s Word. You can easily see it in the lives of many people around you with their rebellious, disobedient, and addictive lifestyles.
Our hospitals, mental wards, rehab facilities, prisons, and the streets, are full of broken and destroyed lives. Each one of these souls can tell you that it all started with a disobedient and rebellious thought. These were attached to a hurtful and angry emotion that turned into angry and resentful words. These words turned into rebellious actions, that soon turned into habitual deeds. The habitual deeds formed their character and thus their destiny of self-destruction and broken relationships.
Once you allow the demons to attach themselves to your negative, emotive energy, via your words and your deeds, it is just a matter of time before they invite other demons to move into your soul to form a stronghold that is infested with darkness. Your carnal, natural mind, with its tendency to speak and do worldly things, now becomes energized to do even more destructive actions that bring harm to yourself and to others. You are soon behaving in ways that you never dreamed of behaving, because someone else has taken up residency in your mind. You will now do what these demons tell you to do, or else. Check out Laura Maxwell’s testimony about her mother’s untimely death and her own struggle to be delivered from false New Age Occult teachings.
The good news is, Jesus Christ defeated the devil and his demons so that we can be free from all of their demonic destruction in our lives and in the lives of our loved ones. The bad news is, our churches have not taught us how to execute this freedom, but rather have played down the role of Satan and his kingdom in our lives today. So we have to go back to Jesus and the Apostles for direction, and it becomes immediately clear that we are to speak to the demons the same way that they did. We are to take our authority as children of God and command the devil and his demons to go out of our lives and out of the lives of our children. Mark 16:17 ESV says, “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues;” How do we do make this happen?
1-Confess your sins to God and ask Him to reveal anything hidden in your life that is displeasing to Him and in disobedience to His Word.
2-Draw nigh unto God and He will draw nigh unto you. Spend time in His Word and in His Presence by praying to Him. Take time to get to know Him.
3-Ask God to put His spiritual armor on you, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of Truth, the feet shod with the Gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, the infilling of the Holy Spirit while staying in a state of continual prayer, the covering of Christ’s Blood over you, the power of God’s Word, the Authority of the Name of Jesus Christ, the surrounding of His angels, the covering of His anointing and unction.
4-Find Scriptures that deal with your attachment, or infestation, and become familiar with them.
5-Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Speak directly to the demon who is harassing you, or hindering you, (if it is yourself – look yourself in the eye as you stand in front of a mirror, if it is someone else – look them in the eye and speak directly to the spirit behind the eyes)
6-Quote or read the scripture and then command the unclean spirits to come out in Jesus’ Name. You do not need to shout, just speak with authority. (“Satan, Christ defeated you at Calvary, and by His authority, I bind your authority, and command you to come out, in Jesus’ Name!” “Go, and do not return again.”
7-Then praise and worship the Father, asking Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. The devil hates praise, because he used to sing those praises better than you can. He runs away every time.
If you, or someone you know, are demon possessed, then you need the help of a deliverance team. Don’t try to take on demons, who have total control of a personality, by yourself. It is not because you do not have the authority in Christ, it is because the devil is clever and knows how to trip up people with little or no experience. The sons of Sceva in Acts 19:14 were a prime example of an exorcism gone wrong. It can be dangerous to your health and life, while making a complete fool out of you.
Most attachments and minor infestations can be expelled with proper repentance, renouncement of past sins, soul-ties, and habitual sin patterns, and drawing nigh unto God; and commanding the demons to go, on the authority of the shed Blood and Name of Jesus Christ. The stronger cases, you will need those who practice a deliverance ministry.
The following was one of my personal experiences in helping to free a brother from demonic possession:
Mike was a believer who was hurt by church leaders. He took his anger with him as he quit going to church, and started hitting the bars to drown his pain. He spoke ill of the church to as many as he could, thus further opening doors to the enemy. Demons were happy with Mike, and they followed him everywhere he went, making sure he met others who agreed with him about church and God’s so-called double standards of love. He began to experiment with drugs and found many opportunities to sleep with girls. He found that when he was drinking and doing drugs, he could shut out the pain and conviction that he was doing wrong. The sex offered some comfort and assurance that someone cared about him. The only problem was, he was finding that he needed more and more of it all to keep the pain away, and his conscience quiet.
After living this lifestyle for five years, he decided he had had enough and wanted out. He tried coming to church again, only to find that he couldn’t feel God anymore, so he went home and got drunk and stoned. He awoke in the middle of the night, aware of someone else in his room. He felt the most horrible fear grip his heart and he could hardly move. He knew that what he was feeling was demonic, and the only thing he could think of to do was to rebuke it in Jesus Name. He could hardly get the Name out of his mouth, but when he did, the fear and demons left the room. He stayed up all night for fear they would come back. As soon as it was daylight, he picked up the phone and called his pastor for help. The pastor said he would be right over and pray with him.
The pastor took an evangelist with him to Mike’s house, and they soon realized that they were dealing with more than a demonic harassment. Mike was possessed with demons. They prayed with him for two hours while they tried to hold him still on the living room floor. I received the pastor’s call to come and help them. I prayed in the Spirit during the 20 minute drive to Mike’s house. I arrive and find Mike on his back on the floor, and the pastor holding his legs, while the evangelist was holding his shoulders. Mike’s body was thrashing around and his head was being thrown violently side to side. It was all these two preachers could do to hold him down and keep him from hurting himself.
I threw my coat off onto the couch, and immediately straddled Mike’s chest, commanding the demons to come out of him. We knew Mike had seven demons, because the pastor had asked the names of the demons in Mike and they had given their names. As I commanded the demons to come out of Mike, his eyes would not look at me, but kept thrashing his head back and forth. I was very bold, holding my Bible before his face, saying, “This is the Word of God and it says that I have authority to cast you out. I command you in the Name of Jesus Christ to look at this Bible!” It was like his head was on a giant rubber band and he was a soldier in the military. His head immediately snapped to attention and his eyes were as big as half dollars as they stared straight at the Bible as I held it before Mike’s face. I then said, “Now this Word says that you have to come out of Mike in Jesus’ Name. I bind your authority and command you to come out of Mike in the Name of Jesus Christ!” And they did, just like that. Mike relaxed, quit thrashing around with his body and smiled real big as he raised his arms and hands, praying in the Holy Spirit. He received further counselling from his pastor and started going to church again. It all started with a hurt feeling attached to a bad attitude, which developed into a negative thought and action pattern, until Mike was into a destructive lifestyle under the authority of demons.
This is why I become upset with people who say anything against Jesus Christ and His Word. Jesus said His Words were Spirit and Life and Truth, and I have proven that over and over and over again in my life. I sleep with the Bible under my pillow each night for that very reason. My wife touched my Bible one day and felt the power of God in its pages lift her hand immediately into the air. The Word of God is quick and powerful, dividing asunder the soul and spirit, the joints and marrow, and the thoughts and intents of the hearts of men. No wonder carnal, disobedient people hate it!
This will conclude this series on Satan’s War for Your Soul.