Where do demons operate, where do they take up residence? I will list nine areas, but I am sure there are more.
Now when I am talking about demonic spirits I am talking about persistent thoughts and feelings that will not go away.
Proverbs 25: 28 Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.
So, this verse compares the spirit inside of us to a city. And when the person has no spiritual defenses, that city is open to almost any evil spirit that wants to come in.
You take a drug addict; any kind of spirit can get into them because their walls are broken down.
But in a city, there are a lot of different areas. There’s the area where the wealthy live, there’s the slum areas, and there’s the various ethnic areas, and so forth.
And so inside you and me, there is a city with various areas where demons can take up residence.
Now our heart consists of our spirit and our soul, but mainly the soul. And if we do not control our spirit, the enemy can get into areas of our soul-life where they take up residence. They sit in our soul gates (mind, emotions, will, conscience, and the other functions of our soul) and tempt us according to the various desires of our mortal bodies.
The first area is emotions and attitudes.
There are gangs of demons. And each one opens the way for the next. And if you meet one, you should start searching for the others.
Behind every continuing negative emotion and attitude there is an evil spirit.
Anger, fear, loneliness, misery, self-pity, pride, jealousy. There’s a tremendous list; it goes on but you get the idea.
Now, the fact that you experience anger doesn’t necessarily mean you have a demon of anger.
But if you continually have a problem with anger, then you probably have a demon of anger.
There are certain root problems out of which other spirits take up residence. I think the greatest single root problem is rejection.
And rejection leads to a whole series. Loneliness, misery, self-pity, depression, despair. When you’ve gone that far, you’re headed one of two ways. Death, if it’s passive, suicide, if it’s active.
I don’t believe anybody ever committed suicide except under the impulse of an evil spirit. That’s my opinion. I can’t prove it.
Another very typical problem is rebellion. Which leads to resentment, to hatred, to anger, to violence and so on.
Number two is the mind. In a way, the mind is the battlefield. Demonic spirits that affect the mind are doubt, unbelief, confusion, indecision, insanity.
And I’ve discovered that people who’ve been in the occult almost always have a problem with confusion.
Depression, you can call it either emotional or mental. It doesn’t matter, but it’s there.
The next area is the tongue.
There are a lot of characteristic demons of the tongue. The main one is lying.
The Bible speaks about a lying spirit. There are compulsive liars. They don’t even know when they’re lying. I had someone I knew like that.
I was trying to help a person come off alcohol and I bought some beer for him and put it in the refrigerator and said, “only take a drink if you have to” and went to work.
When I got home, I checked the refrigerator and all the beer was still there, and he came walking into the apartment with a beer in his hand and told me that he was not drinking. He had a demon of lying.
You see, compulsive liars are very deceptive because they don’t even know they’re lying. They can pass a lie detector test.
The two church going demons. Criticism and gossip.
Exaggeration, the evangelistic demon.
Swearing. I was a slave to swearing when the Lord saved me. Absolutely incapable of speaking without cussing. Unclean speech and so on. Negative talking.
Now when we have practiced swearing for a long time it becomes a part of our subconscious mind programed into our brain. So, this is a hard one to overcome, but the moment you swear when something negative happens, immediately your spirit is contrite, I always say sorry to the Lord. It does not mean you have a spirit, those who have a spirit of swearing are swearing all the time.
Number four, the thing that nobody talks about in church. Sex. Because it’s not discussed in church, the people with problems in sex go to a psychiatrist.
You go to a psychiatrist, and he says, you have a guilt problem and your problem centers in your religion. Give up your religion and you won’t feel guilty.
No. They don’t all say that. I would say if you sat in church for 10 years and still feel guilty, your problem is your religion, really. I would look for a church that is Led by the Spirit. If that’s all that church can do for you, leaving you feeling guilty all the time.
Now, we have to say certain things about sex. First, sex is not evil, it’s good. We must clear away that misunderstanding.
God created man and woman sexual beings, and after He checked on everything He created, He said it was all very good, including sex.
One of the big problems in church is we’re just not honest about sex, we’re ashamed about it. And we encourage problems by that attitude.
I would say every form of compulsive sex deviation is demonic, without exception.
Masturbation, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, effeminacy, and all sorts of unpleasant perversions that we won’t talk about. I would say every one of those is demonic.
Now, you don’t have to feel ashamed, but you do need to resolve your problem.
Number five- Lusts. Now, we could have included sex under that heading, but it’s such a distinctive area, I keep it separate.
Perverted desires and appetites. I believe all appetites initially were healthy. But by sin and demonic power they’ve been perverted to become unhealthy and destructive.
1 John 2: 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
There is demonic power that controls eyes. Some men look at women in a sexual way. They’re incapable of not doing that.
That’s a demon that’s focused in their eyes.
Gluttony is a very clear example of a perverted appetite.
No one can tell me this isn’t real.
Let’s talk about addictions for a moment.
Addictions grow on frustrations; they’re branches on a trunk. And if you merely deal with the addiction, you haven’t solved the problem.
Take alcohol and gluttony.
One woman is a Catholic. Her husband runs around with other women, doesn’t care for her, doesn’t give her enough money, so on.
She gets frustrated. She’s got to get some relief. She walks across the living room to the cocktail cabinet and always takes a drink when she gets frustrated.
The other woman is Church of God, okay? Her husband does the same thing. But for that woman to get to the cocktail cabinet would be a lengthy journey. So where does she go? To the kitchen and open’s, the refrigerator. And she becomes a foodaholic.
And in either case, to help them, you’ve got to deal with the basic frustration, which is their attitude toward their husband.
Number six, the whole realm of the occult. It is a vast realm. And every part of it is demonic, even the respectable parts like yoga and karate and other practices.
Number seven. All false religions. Islam. Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhism, Hinduism, and in some respects Judaism.
There isn’t a false religion that doesn’t have a demon among it. Satan is an expert in the field of a religion. It’s the main area in which he operates.
Number eight, all heresies. And by heresies, I mean departures from the Christian faith.
1 Timothy 4: 1Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.
What faith? The Christian faith. Why? Giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.
This has already happened on a wide scale today. And then it goes on to say, it gives some examples of their errors.
Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving, etc.
Particularly on the west coast of the United States, you’ll find hundreds of thousands of people to whom that applies. Usually, they’re found in cults like the church in Waco, TX. The Moravian branch Davidians and Adventists. In which the government came in and killed a lot of them.
They’re becoming super-spiritual. They decide not to marry or if they’re married, they don’t cohabit with their spouse.
And they’re going to be super spiritual by what they eat.
Now, I believe in eating wisely, but I don’t make a religion out of it.
The moment it becomes a religious issue; you’re on the verge of the demonic.
And you’ll notice that people who get into food fads can’t talk about anything else. That’s another mark of the demonic. No matter where you start, you always end up talking about food. Don’t eat this and don’t eat that.
There are lots of things I don’t eat, but I do not make a religion out of it.
Number nine, the area of our physical bodies. And we’ve dealt with many examples in the gospels.
Certain things I think are normally demonic. I would never say always.
The first one I’d put on the list is epilepsy. And there have been many, many people delivered from epilepsy when it’s treated as an evil spirit.
If a person comes to you in a meeting with an epileptic spirit, you say: No, you do not need healing, I believe that’s an evil spirit. I’m prepared to command it to come out. Do you want me to? Are you prepared?
Because there may be a fight, there may be a struggle. If you don’t want to, I won’t do it. Some people will say yes, some say no.
You see, a person may be completely free in the area of sex, but may be in a false religion.
Or a person may have no spirit’s in the mind but may be oppressed in the emotions.
Or a person, let’s say, maybe believes in a heresy, but be perfectly healthy.
So, there’s a whole number of different areas in a person’s life where they need deliverance.