If we have this recurrent, persistent, disturbing, frustrating problem, how do I know whether it’s just the flesh or whether it’s an evil spirit exploiting our flesh?
Our old man has been crucified with Christ-Romans 6: 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Our old man is everything that we have inherited from the first
Adam that fell. This includes our spirit, soul and body. When we are born from above, then we have an automatic yes in our will to God.
So, our spirit now desires one thing, but our flesh desires another, so that we may have a civil war going on inside of us, that could last for years if we don’t bring our soul and body under subjection to the Lordship of Jesus over our spirit.
But just because our spirit has been born again, we still have an old soul and a mortal body. The best definition of the flesh is that union of soul and body that acts independently of the Lord.
Our soul has been shaped before we were born again, by nature (what we have inherited from our natural parents, DNA) nurture (how we were raised, our parents, our schools we went to, our role model’s…etc.) and trauma (the traumatic events that have happened in our lives).
Our spirit gets instantly saved, but our soul needs to be healed, renewed and restored to wholeness. This is a process.
The main functions of our soul are our will, mind and our emotions, which all have to be renewed. We have a brain that is different from our mind. Our brain has been programmed by our habits and life experiences.
So, the real question is, are we having a problem with the flesh or are there demonic spirits involved?
What are the activities of demons, the main ways in which demons operate and manifest their presence, the things they habitually do.
Number one, they entice. This is temptation. The Bible says every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. There’s something within each one of us called lust, perverted desire, but there’s an agent that plays upon the lust. It’s like the mouse; there’s something in the mouse that likes cheese. But to get the mouse into the trap, there’s got to be someone that places the cheese just where it’ll cause the mouse to be caught.
Now the enticer, the agent, is the demon. And he plays upon lust, perverted desires within you and me. One of the basic activities of demons is enticement.
Personally, I don’t believe that Satan comes down from the heavenlies every time you and I get tempted.
I believe he’s got a very well-trained, multitudinous army doing the job for him against us all the time.
He says there’s a young man just going into the ministry. And he could be a danger. Demons get on his tail and get him interested in some smart divorcee who’s got about three children and a rotten past and get him sidetracked because otherwise he’s going to do us damage.
See, that’s the piece of cheese that’s baiting the mousetrap. And those evil spirits are playing upon something called sexual lust inside a young man. Just an example.
The next activity is to enslave. Let’s look at this, particularly in reference to sex. Now, first, about sex, I want to say sex is not evil, contrary to the opinion of most Christians, it’s good.
Because God created man sexual, and after he created everything, he saw that everything he had created was very good, including sex.
The church has got a totally wrong negative attitude towards sex. However, sex is also very powerful in most persons, and therefore the devil is smart enough to know that if he can get control in the sex area, he’s got a very important measure of control in that person.
Now the next thing I want to say about sex is, it is no sin to be tempted. Jesus was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. So, we can be tempted without sinning.
Further, if you are tempted and sin sexually with a wrong act, that does not necessarily mean you need deliverance from a sex demon. All you need to do is repent, confess to Jesus, receive forgiveness and cleansing, and there you are back again. You’re all right.
But if this thing becomes enslaving, if no matter how many times you repent and confess and get forgiven and cleansed, you’re back again doing it, then it’s a demon.
Now, I believe every form of sex perversion is demonic in its origin.
The third thing demons do is torment. They are the tormentors.
In Matthew 18, There’s a parable which talks about a servant who was forgiven $6 million and refused to forgive a fellow servant $10. I’m putting it in modern value.
And when the master heard about this unforgiving servant, he said, thou wicked servant, he was very angry, and he commanded him to be delivered to THE TORMENTORS till he should pay the uttermost dollar. The last verse of that parable says, SO LIKEWISE shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye do not from your hearts forgive every man his brother, his trespasses.
What does it mean so likewise? To deliver you to the tormentor. And who are the tormentors? The demon.
God awakened me to this fact because multitudes of Christians are being tormented every day.
And I said to myself, God, how could that be? They’re your children. How do they get in the hands of the tormentors?
God said, I handed them over because they refuse to forgive another believer. So likewise, shall my heavenly Father do also to you.
There are various areas of torment. There’s spiritual torment. The demon of fear is probably the chief tormentor. The Apostle John says, fear hath torment.
Now there’s a natural fear which is perfectly normal. There’s the fear of the Lord which is reverence and respect and awe for God which is clean and endureth forever.
But there’s another kind of fear which is demonic. It’s abnormal, it’s unnatural, it’s excessive and it’s tormenting.
There’s a tormentor. And there’s another tormentor and it’s called condemnation.
Condemned all the time. The Bible says there is no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus.
Another tormentor is doubt. And then there’s physical torment, cancer, arthritis, and so on.If we have this recurrent, persistent, disturbing, frustrating problem, how do I know whether it’s just the flesh or whether it’s an evil spirit exploiting our flesh?
Our old man has been crucified with Christ-Romans 6: 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Our old man is everything that we have inherited from the first
Adam that fell. This includes our spirit, soul and body. When we are born from above, then we have an automatic yes in our will to God.
So, our spirit now desires one thing, but our flesh desires another, so that we may have a civil war going on inside of us, that could last for years if we don’t bring our soul and body under subjection to the Lordship of Jesus over our spirit.
But just because our spirit has been born again, we still have an old soul and a mortal body. The best definition of the flesh is that union of soul and body that acts independently of the Lord.
Our soul has been shaped before we were born again, by nature (what we have inherited from our natural parents, DNA) nurture (how we were raised, our parents, our schools we went to, our role model’s…etc.) and trauma (the traumatic events that have happened in our lives).
Our spirit gets instantly saved, but our soul needs to be healed, renewed and restored to wholeness. This is a process.
The main functions of our soul are our will, mind and our emotions, which all have to be renewed. We have a brain that is different from our mind. Our brain has been programmed by our habits and life experiences.
So, the real question is, are we having a problem with the flesh or are there demonic spirits involved?
What are the activities of demons, the main ways in which demons operate and manifest their presence, the things they habitually do.
Number one, they entice. This is temptation. The Bible says every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. There’s something within each one of us called lust, perverted desire, but there’s an agent that plays upon the lust. It’s like the mouse; there’s something in the mouse that likes cheese. But to get the mouse into the trap, there’s got to be someone that places the cheese just where it’ll cause the mouse to be caught.
Now the enticer, the agent, is the demon. And he plays upon lust, perverted desires within you and me. One of the basic activities of demons is enticement.
Personally, I don’t believe that Satan comes down from the heavenlies every time you and I get tempted.
I believe he’s got a very well-trained, multitudinous army doing the job for him against us all the time.
He says there’s a young man just going into the ministry. And he could be a danger. Demons get on his tail and get him interested in some smart divorcee who’s got about three children and a rotten past and get him sidetracked because otherwise he’s going to do us damage.
See, that’s the piece of cheese that’s baiting the mousetrap. And those evil spirits are playing upon something called sexual lust inside a young man. Just an example.
The next activity is to enslave. Let’s look at this, particularly in reference to sex. Now, first, about sex, I want to say sex is not evil, contrary to the opinion of most Christians, it’s good.
Because God created man sexual, and after he created everything, he saw that everything he had created was very good, including sex.
The church has got a totally wrong negative attitude towards sex. However, sex is also very powerful in most persons, and therefore the devil is smart enough to know that if he can get control in the sex area, he’s got a very important measure of control in that person.
Now the next thing I want to say about sex is, it is no sin to be tempted. Jesus was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. So, we can be tempted without sinning.
Further, if you are tempted and sin sexually with a wrong act, that does not necessarily mean you need deliverance from a sex demon. All you need to do is repent, confess to Jesus, receive forgiveness and cleansing, and there you are back again. You’re all right.
But if this thing becomes enslaving, if no matter how many times you repent and confess and get forgiven and cleansed, you’re back again doing it, then it’s a demon.
Now, I believe every form of sex perversion is demonic in its origin.
The third thing demons do is torment. They are the tormentors.
In Matthew 18, There’s a parable which talks about a servant who was forgiven $6 million and refused to forgive a fellow servant $10. I’m putting it in modern value.
And when the master heard about this unforgiving servant, he said, thou wicked servant, he was very angry, and he commanded him to be delivered to THE TORMENTORS till he should pay the uttermost dollar. The last verse of that parable says, SO LIKEWISE shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye do not from your hearts forgive every man his brother, his trespasses.
What does it mean so likewise? To deliver you to the tormentor. And who are the tormentors? The demon.
God awakened me to this fact because multitudes of Christians are being tormented every day.
And I said to myself, God, how could that be? They’re your children. How do they get in the hands of the tormentors?
God said, I handed them over because they refuse to forgive another believer. So likewise, shall my heavenly Father do also to you.
There are various areas of torment. There’s spiritual torment. The demon of fear is probably the chief tormentor. The Apostle John says, fear hath torment.
Now there’s a natural fear which is perfectly normal. There’s the fear of the Lord which is reverence and respect and awe for God which is clean and endureth forever.
But there’s another kind of fear which is demonic. It’s abnormal, it’s unnatural, it’s excessive and it’s tormenting.
There’s a tormentor. And there’s another tormentor and it’s called condemnation.
Condemned all the time. The Bible says there is no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus.
Another tormentor is doubt. And then there’s physical torment, cancer, arthritis, and so on.