As I wrote yesterday and according to Jesus’ Words, FATHER has not removed the devil or his demons and it is up to the believer to deal with the devices and intent of the devil. Failure to do so will make your way difficult and frustrating. Overcomers have to overcome something! If you think your walk will be without challenges after you achieve a certain level of maturity, think again.
Jesus spoke in Matthew chapter 12:
43 “When a demon is cast out of a person, it roams around a dry region, looking for a place to rest, but never finds it. 44 Then it says, ‘I’ll return to the house I moved out of,’ and so it goes back, only to find that the house is vacant, warm, and ready for it to move back in. 45 So it goes looking for seven other demons more evil than itself, and they all enter together to live there. Then the person’s condition becomes much worse than it was in the beginning. This describes what will also happen to the people of this evil generation.”
Jesus expressed the reality of demons’ existence. A believer must move beyond salvation and proceed forward to have The Word planted in his or her heart and take up residence else more demons will come forth. Deliverance allows the person to attain a teachable heart and begin maturing in Christ.
My wife and I were recently on a plane where a spiritual attack occurred. In my particular seat, the plane’s current technology (a personal video screen) would not work. Since I was required to wear a mask, I simply began praying in Tongues during the flight. Across the aisle, a young 18 year old male began having a “panic attack” and his father alerted the flight attendants. For the entirety of the flight, he became the focus of nearby passengers with a doctor, nurse, and flight attendants focused on him. They found no physical issues whatsoever. Since the demon(s) could not provoke or irritate me, they looked for a weaker vessel close by and he submitted to them. All the demons managed to accomplish was to promote me praying in Tongues on the plane. Their plan backfired as usual.
In Mark chapter 5, Jesus dealt directly with demons and revealed their future to us:
1 They arrived at the other side of the lake, at the region of the Gerasenes. 2 As Jesus stepped ashore, a demon-possessed madman came out of the graveyard and confronted him. 3 The man had been living there among the tombs, and no one was able to restrain him, not even with chains. 4 For every time they attempted to chain his hands and feet with shackles, he would snap the chains and break the shackles in pieces. He was so strong that no one had the power to subdue him. 5 Day and night he could be found lurking in the cemetery or in the vicinity, shrieking and cutting himself with stones!
6 When He saw Jesus from a distance, he ran to Him and threw himself down before Him, 7 shouting at the top of his lungs, “Leave me alone, Jesus, Son of the Most High God! Swear in God’s name that you won’t torture me!” 8 (For Jesus had already said to him, “Come out of that man, you demon spirit!”)
9 Jesus said to him, “What is your name?”
“Mob,” he answered. “They call me Mob because there are thousands of us in his body!” 10 He begged Jesus repeatedly not to expel them out of the region.
11 Nearby there was a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside. 12 The demons begged Him, “Send us into the pigs. Let us enter them!”
13 So Jesus gave them permission, and the demon horde immediately came out of the man and went into the pigs! This caused the herd to rush madly down the steep slope and fall into the lake, drowning about two thousand pigs! Depending on weight, the cost of two thousand live pigs today could be as much as $250,000. The economic cost to the community over the loss of this herd was significant.
The demons recognized Jesus as The Son of God and fully understood the Power and Authority Jesus walked in. We are to walk in the same Power and Authority freely given to us from Heaven. Demons do not want us to realize that they must submit to us when we walk by THE SPIRIT thus they focus on our mindset and ego hoping to keep our attention diverted from The Word and The Spirit.
This passage clearly shows us that demons are expecting to be punished at some time in the future. They have absolutely no power whatsoever to withstand the Power and Authority given to us from Heaven. Further, they don’t want to leave the geographic area they have been assigned. When they are told to leave, they don’t leave right away but ultimately submit and depart after they unsuccessfully try to negotiate.
The demons’ goal is to deceive and keep people in agreement with them. They want your mindset to remain weak and misdirected to the world. Once you get the revelation of Power and Authority from Heaven and begin to walk in it, demons know their time is over with you and look for weaker vessels.
Don’t forget, Jesus and the disciples were met by a storm which tried to sink them before they arrived at the region of the Gerasenes specifically to cast out these demons. Afterward, they immediately departed back to Capernaum. (Matthew 9)
We are given these passages so that we can deal with the challenges of this broken world and not be ignorant of the adversary’s devices.