It is within the spiritual universe that spirits exist and roam. Spirits are invisible to the human eye but they are very real and very powerful, much like WIFI radio waves are invisible but very real and very powerful. We cannot see spirits (unless they intentionally do something to make themselves appear visible), but what we can see and feel and hear, is their effects in our lives.

A simple-minded person might say, “I don’t believe in anything I can’t see!” But go back to the analogy—WIFI radio waves are invisible, yet we believe in them because we can see, feel and hear their effects in the form of words, music, pictures, videos, and even conversations, if we have the right device or receiver.

This illustrates how what we don’t see can really help us! Conversely, what we don’t see can really hurt us. For example, standing on the edge of a cliff, I would not doubt gravity’s ability to hurt me, even though gravity is invisible. As you know, it’s best not to be simple-minded about the invisible. That explains why you’re here getting insight. IN- sight!

There are various types of spirits in the invisible spiritual universe. These include angels who serve God, and demons who serve satan. God is a Spirit, and satan the devil is also a spirit—a far inferior, weaker spirit.

Demons have no physical body of their own but they generally have a strong craving to be in one. They prefer human bodies but they will settle for animals as well—even pigs, as seen in Scripture. When not in a body, demons move around place to place, invisibly.

There are two opposing spiritual kingdoms. The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom that interacts with the tri-universe. It is owned and operated by the sovereign King and Creator of the entire tri-universe. He is the one true God. Like us, He too is triune, but in a different way. He reveals Himself as the Father, the Son—Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Unlike us, God was not created. He is eternal, all loving, all-powerful, all-knowing and all-present. The awesome cosmos with its 50 billion trillion stars is all His doing! None will ever be His equal. However, Lucifer missed that memo.

Lucifer was a glorious angel, created by God. He became proud and led a rebellion to usurp God’s kingdom. He was swiftly kicked out of heaven, deceiving a third of the angels to follow him. They sealed their fate in hell by doing this, and they’ve hated God ever since. Lucifer became better known as satan, the devil or “the god of this world”.

So began the kingdom of satan. Like God’s kingdom, satan’s kingdom is also a spiritual kingdom interacting within the tri-universe. However, it has only limited access to operate. It is on a restraining leash, so to say. God’s Kingdom controls that leash.

The spirits in satan’s kingdom are enemies of God. They hate Him. For that reason, they also hate us humans. Why? Because they know we are God’s precious creation whom He loves dearly. They know it is God’s desire for us to become part of His Royal Family—His adopted children! So, it is satan’s primary aim to disrupt our relationship with God—to keep us spiritually separated from the heavenly Father who adopts us and gives us new life if we respond to His invitation.

One might ask, “Why would a good God allow satan and demons to continue to exist?” In the writer’s humble view, the simple answer is love. There is no possibility of loving God if we are forced to. Love can’t be forcefully demanded. Love must be of our free will if it is to be real. God desires our authentic love...not forced robotic love which would be meaningless. In order for true love to exist, there needs to be free will with a true choice—a real alternative with true appeal. And so, we have the tempter.

As a result, anyone choosing to love and follow God is clearly doing so intentionally by personal choice, having to say no to the many opposing lures, distractions, deceptions and instant gratifications that satan’s kingdom offers, to say nothing of the lure from the world and our sinful nature! It takes true love to follow God in this setting.

Meanwhile, satan knows his ultimate destiny is hell and he aims to take as many people with him as he can. This explains the deceptive, hateful nature of his demons. Since demons take their orders from satan who comes to steal, kill and destroy lives, it’s not surprising that demons are malicious spirits, well known to entice, harass, torture, compel, enslave, cause addictions, defile, deceive, and even attack the physical body. They cause sickness, blindness, deep depression, and tiredness to name a few. A partial list of many other symptoms is here at Freedom Time International.

Meanwhile, Jesus, God’s Son, came to destroy the works of the devil, to bring us freedom, healing, and abundant life—eternal life, eternal love! When Jesus was on earth in human form, thousands of people came to Him for healing and freedom from demons. Jesus and His followers were well known to have authority over demons. That fact is the same for His followers today, although relatively few openly use this authority to cast out demons.

Worldwide, there is still only one solution to demons...only one name by whom demons can be cast out. It is the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The dramatic story of Lyndell Enns’ encounter with satan bears this out.

Jesus is not only authorized and powerful to cast out demons. We have a bigger problem which He’s authorized to solve for us as well. We have all broken God's laws. We’ve sinned. With our ugly sin, we fall far short of the glory of God. This shuts us out of life in God’s beautifully majestic, eternal kingdom. Jesus is authorized by God to be the only Way of adoption into God’s family. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

To exit satan’s losing kingdom to enter God’s all-powerful, winning kingdom, is a matter of your personal choice. It involves agreeing with God about breaking His laws such as lying, stealing, lusting, etc.. It involves turning from sin to follow Jesus, trusting that on the cross Jesus paid the death penalty which you deserve for breaking God’s laws. It involves trusting that the perfect, sinless, shed blood of Jesus is God’s acceptable means of payment for your sin debt. (Remember, it is by the power of this same blood that we successfully cast out powerful demons, so this is real stuff...not some religious claptrap.) Upon this belief, if you wish to align with God and start a new life with Him, it’s very simple to begin. He calls you to repent and be baptized.

Being baptized means to be immersed or buried in water, showing the ‘old you’ to be dead and buried, and the ‘new you’ to be risen in new life—enjoying a new spiritual connectedness with God. In this we follow the example of Jesus who was resurrected from the dead! Upon the decision to follow Christ Jesus, the Spirit of God actually moves into your body and becomes one with your spirit! You have become part of the Kingdom of God...part of the Royal Family!

With that bigger problem addressed, let’s return to the problem at hand. Demons.

In order of least to greatest, the effects of demons in our lives vary from mere temptation, to oppression, to demonization of varying degrees. With the word demonization, we are not talking of the occasional irritation of demonic oppression which is an external attack. Rather, we are speaking of internal attacks from within a person which are more persistent.

With demonization, the amount of influence demons can have while within a person’s life can vary anywhere from subtle and persistent, to nearly complete control, depending largely on choices the person or his previous generations have made.

It is primarily through habitual sin or generational sin that demons gain entry and a foothold (a.k.a. ground, opportunity, legal right, or in Greek, topos) and with that, various degrees of control in a person’s life. Regardless of the amount of control a demon has, a person who is subject to this internal demonic influence is said to be demonized. This word comes from the Greek word daimonizo.

The term 'demonized' is a much more accurate and helpful English translation than the term 'demon possessed' which improperly implies being owned by demons. No such implication comes from the Greek word daimonizo.

The term 'demon possessed' is unhelpful for another reason. It tends to leave people to picture more of an all-or-nothing situation with demons, rather than a spectrum of potential control ranging from a little to a lot, which is the true reality.

This all-or-nothing understanding can leave one to assume he is free of demonic influence since he isn’t manifesting some outlandish, conspicuous behaviour. This assumption plays right into the enemy’s hand, leaving people in bondage who wouldn’t dream that demons are at work in their lives and partially the cause of their problems. This is one of the enemy’s most common deceptions.

Demons use different strategies in different situations, sometimes manifesting quite conspicuously. More often in the developed world, they like to stay stealthy and subtle so as to remain undetected and unassociated with the problems they cause.

For example, Derek struggled with depression for years. He tried everything he knew to get free from it until he correctly understood it was a demon of heaviness. Once he knew his problem was from a spirit and not from a more natural source (such as lack of wisdom, failures, or a chemical imbalance) the right remedy could finally be applied. The evil spirit was quickly dealt with and the intense depression was gone. Pills can help a body issue, but they do nothing to solve a spirit issue. In fact, they can drag a problem on and on by obscuring the symptoms and concealing the true problem. On the other hand, if it is pills one needs, one should take them!

Here is a gentle warning to Christians or religious people who imagine they are immune to demons...the man demonized with depression in the preceding example was an upstanding, respectable Christian minister.

His name is Derek Prince. He tells that story in his book They Shall Expel Demons. He became well known worldwide for an effective ministry, casting out demons and teaching others to do the same.

Here are a few hints summarized from his book:

• • Some Christians think, “If I leave demons alone, they will leave me alone.” Not true. Actually, the fact that you are a Christian makes you a primary target for attack. Demons want to keep you ineffective or better still, lure you back to their kingdom. Your best protection is to know what the Bible teaches about the nature and activity of demons in order to avail yourself of the powerful protection and freedom God has made available to us through Christ.
  • Invisible barriers to Christian fruitfulness are sometimes caused by demons.
  • You can crucify the sinful nature, and you can cast out demons, but you can’t crucify demons or cast out the sinful nature. You need the right remedy for the problem.
  • Deliverance cannot take the place of discipline, and discipline cannot take the place of deliverance from demons.
  • We maintain deliverance and freedom by the disciplined application of Scripture.
  • Many problems with demons begin in childhood. Familiar spirits like to stay in thefamily, moving from generation to generation.
  • Spiritual blessings are real and spiritual curses are real too. Both are biblical and active today. Sadly, in some churches, you may hear much said about blessings, while curses are relegated to something on the order of superstition. In actual fact, we open the door for each of these supernatural results in our lives through certain choices we and our generations make. (Yes, we are speaking here of spiritual interventions which bring blessings or curses. We are not merely speaking of the natural cause and effect of our choices which bring benefit or injury in the natural world.) Blessings, or curses...the choice is ours. Without Jesus, we’d have no choice. With Jesus, we can break curses and be blessed.

We have smart, powerful enemies that we can’t see. They use this advantage effectively and usually try to stay invisible and undetected, in stealth mode. Typically, they don’t want to be associated with the problems they bring into our lives, so they try not to overplay their hand.

Instead, they often operate in subtle ways that can leave us to assume our problems are from some natural cause. To make matters more confusing, they can even cause the same symptoms that are caused by natural factors. For example, can a bad back be caused by a demon? Yes! For eighteen years one dear lady was doubled over by a spirit of infirmity until she was healed Jesus. See this and other examples next.

Demons can attack our minds, our bodies and even our property. Job would testify to that! Here are biblical examples of bodily harm done by demons which was healed by expelling the demons:

It must be emphasized that there is only one authority—one name, by which demons can be expelled and freedom retained. It is the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. You’ll soon get that picture as you watch Lyndell Enns’ dramatic story of encountering satan.

Not every problem comes from a demon, but when our problems are aggravated or caused by demons, there’s only one solution. Other solutions won’t work. This is why it’s so helpful to gain experienced help from people who know the solution; people with spiritual wisdom and discernment; people with insight who know about demons and recognize their patterns; people who have taken up their authority to send demons packing; people who can show the Way to be free and to stay free. Freedom Time International is here to help.

We welcome you to contact us if you need help with discerning demons, expelling demons, or coming into the Kingdom of God. We hope to hear from you soon!