Please read Part One
Levels of Demonic Influence
There are four levels of influence or control a demon can have over a human being.
Demonic Influence
This is Satan (or any of his minions) whispering in a person’s ear and planting thoughts and making suggestions. The person is controlled only to the extent that they believe what they are being told, and act on it. It is effective because it sounds like a person’s own thoughts.
1 John 5:19 19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
This is the main way that Satan influences people. If he gets enough people to think a certain way, he can sway public opinion. Pretty much the whole world has had their thinking molded by demonic influence, and unfortunately, a good percentage of the church.
Look at Matthew 16:13-33. Jesus asks, “Who do men say I am?”, and then “Who do you say I am?” and Peter answers that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Matthew 16:17 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
Immediately after that, Jesus starts talking of His impending arrest, death, and resurrection. Peter pulls Jesus aside and begins to rebuke Him, to “correct His confession”, saying those things would not happen to Him.
Matthew 16:23 23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Poor Peter. He went directly from receiving revelation from the Father to having his thoughts influenced by the devil.
Notice Jesus’ words, what He said Peter was guilty of: “You are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” That is one of Satan’s main goals, to get people to put the things of God out of their minds, and to elevate their own thoughts and opinions above what He says.
Demonic Oppression
This is the next level up of demonic influence. It can be either physical, as in sickness and disease, or mental, causing a person to be in deep depression or even suicidal.
Acts 10:38 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
Notice how it says that Jesus went about healing all that were oppressed by the devil.
Ultimately, all sickness is an oppression of the devil, since it entered the human race through sin. That’s how Jesus treated it. When He healed people, He was undoing the works of Satan. Now not every sickness is directly caused by demonic activity, but sometimes it is. We see an example of this in Luke 13:11-16, where it says a woman had a spirit of infirmity that caused her to be bowed over. Jesus later said that she had been bound by Satan for 18 years.
Mark 9:14-27 14 And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them.
15 Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him.
16 And He asked the scribes, “What are you discussing with them?”
17 Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.
18 And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”
19 He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.”
20 Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.
21 So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood.
22 And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!”
26 Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.”
27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
Here we see how a demonic spirit caused a boy to have seizures, but it was more than just epilepsy, because the seizures had a self destructive element to it. He was also mute. Notice that Jesus called it a deaf and dumb spirit when He commanded it to come out.
There are many people in mental institutions because of demonic oppression of their minds. They hear voices, and are labeled schizophrenic – multiple personalities.
Demonic Obsession
At this level, the demon has influenced a person so greatly that their will becomes the demon’s will. But, even at this level, they are not completely under control.
You hear stories of people who do horrific things and they don’t know why afterwards. They say that “something came over them and told them to do it”. I am convinced that some of the greatest evil that is done in this world is caused by demonic obsession.
Demonic Possession
At this level, the demons have full control of a person’s body and are free to express themselves through it in any way they see fit. The person is still in there, but they are no longer calling the shots in their own body.
Why do demons seek to inhabit people? For expression. The wickedness and lust is a turmoil within them, and they seek some relief by expressing it physically through others. Human beings are the best, since we have a greater capacity to express evil, but even animals will do in a pinch (such as when the Legion asked permission to inhabit the pigs). The problem is, their presence is almost always destructive to their host. The epileptic boy who would throw himself into the fire or water, or the pigs that jumped over a cliff!
Matthew 12:43-45 43 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.
44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.
45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
When a devil is cast out of a person (in the case of full possession), or a person is loosed from demonic oppression/obsession, it is important that they be filled with the presence of God – they get saved, and cease the practices that gave the devil a foothold in their life in the first place.
Why Jesus came
There were many things that Jesus did, of which we only know a part (John said that if everything Jesus said and did was recorded, he supposed even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written). But what was the central purpose of Jesus’ ministry, His core mission?
1 John 3:8 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
The reason Jesus came to earth, the whole purpose of His earthly ministry, His death on the cross, and His resurrection – was to destroy the works of Satan. The word destroy means to break or ruin, to bring to naught, to loose from or unloose.
Of course the main work of Satan that Jesus came to reverse was spiritual death.
Colossians 1:13 KJV 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.
We have been redeemed, which means to be bought back with a price. That means the whole man – spirit, soul, and body. We have been redeemed from sickness, in this life, and eventually we will have a resurrected body which cannot get sick and will never die.
We have been redeemed from the curse of poverty, and eventually will live in mansions on streets of gold.
One day, the earth will be remade, with no curse (Revelation 21:1, 22:3).
Authority over devils
One of the things that impressed people the most about Jesus was his authority over demonic spirits. They had examples of miraculous healings in the Old Testament, but very few examples of successful dealings with devils.
Luke 4:31-37 31 Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths.
32 And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.
33 Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice,
34 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are–the Holy One of God!”
35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.
36 Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”
37 And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.
Look at Luke 10:19:
Luke 10:19 19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Authority and power are two different things, represented by two different Greek words.
Authority, the Greek word exousia, is delegated power. For example, if a traffic cop in the middle of the street blows his whistle and holds up his hand, he can bring a 18 wheeler to a stop. Now did he do that with his own inherent strength and might? No – he is no match for the truck. But he has authority which the driver of the truck recognized, and so he obeyed.
Authority is only as good as the power that backs it up. The President of the United States is no stronger than an ordinary man, and yet he is arguably the most “powerful” man in the world. But that is because he has a great power to back him up – as long as he stays within the confines of his authority.
Jesus operated with authority. The centurion recognized this when he asked Jesus to heal his servant.
Matthew 8:5-10 5 Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him,
6 saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.”
7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.
9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!
This may shock you, but Jesus had no power within Himself to do miracles, any more than you or I do. When He became a human being, He laid all of his divine power aside. In several places, He said that He could do nothing, it was the Father within Him that accomplished what He did.
John 5:19 19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
John 5:30 30 I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.
John 8:28 28 Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.
John 14:10 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
Jesus was so powerful in ministry for two reasons: He only did as He was directed by the Father, so everything He did was the Father’s perfect will, and for that reason He was greatly anointed by the Holy Spirit.
For example, His great healing ministry. Why was He able to heal everybody who came to Him?
Acts 10:38 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
Jesus did no miracles until after He had been baptized by John in the River Jordan, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. Immediately after that He went into the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by Satan. When that was done,
Luke 4:14 14 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.
The Believers’ Authority
We have seen Jesus deal with Satan at every turn, and that He operated in not in His own inherent power, but with the authority and power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. Yet some look at the things that Jesus did and say “Well, Jesus was the Son of God. We can’t hope to do the same things He did.”
Too bad Jesus didn’t know that. Because He said,
John 14:12-14 12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
Jesus sent His disciples out two by two, with orders to preach, heal the sick, and cast out demons.
Luke 9:1-2 1 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.
2 He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Then later on (the next chapter), he gave the same authority and commission to the greater group of those that followed Him, called the 70:
Luke 10:1 1 After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.
And when they returned, flushed with their success, what were they most excited about? That even the demons had to obey them when they spoke the name of Jesus.
Luke 10:17-20 17 Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
18 And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
We’ve already talked about the great things that Jesus did with His authority. Well, we just read that He conferred that same authority to others.
And in answer to those that believe that miracles and authority were only for those in the early church, we have the Great Commission:
Mark 16:15-18 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
We have been given authority over demonic forces. That does not mean we are “stronger” than the devil. No, as a former angel he has far more power, and he is way smarter and has more experience than you or I. But, we have all the power of heaven backing us up – as long as we are in union with God. For if Jesus could do nothing in Himself, it is certain that we can’t.
John 15:5 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
Authority is vested in the Name of Jesus
Notice that the authority over demonic spirits is vested in the Name of Jesus. Actually, anything that we do should be done in the Name of Jesus.
Peter and John encounter a lame man begging at the gate of the Temple.
Acts 3:6 6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
Acts 3:11-12 11 Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed.
12 So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?
Peter preaches to the people about Jesus, and tells them the source of their power:
Acts 3:16 16 And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Through other works of the apostles and other believers, the reputation of the Name of Jesus grew – until others tried to use it who had no right to do so.
Acts 19:13-17 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.”
14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.
15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”
16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
17 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
Using the name
When dealing with evil spirits, you’ll notice that Jesus didn’t pray and ask the Father to cast them out – He commanded them to leave. The disciples, and later when they became apostles did the same thing, but they did it using the name of Jesus.
We, as the church, are the representatives of Jesus Christ here on the earth, left here to carry on His work. We are his ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:19), but even more than that, we are the body of Christ. We get our direction from the Head, but as the Body we do the work.
Satan is a defeated foe, but we have to enforce that defeat – we are like the occupation force. He is the outlaw that will continue to operate unless the authority stops him.
Matthew 18:18-20 18 Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Matthew 18 talks about binding and loosing. What is all that about? Well, we can bind the devil to prevent him from operating, and loose things that he has tied up from his grasp. And that should be done verbally, in the name of Jesus:
“Satan, I bind you in Jesus name, and command you to take your hands off <fill in the blank>, and I loose <fill in the blank> from your grasp.”
A good application of this is while you are interceding for those in need of salvation – for the lost.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
If people are blinded, they cannot see or understand or receive the gospel of Jesus Christ even if they hear it. So when interceding for the lost, we should bind Satan and command him to remove the blinders from their eyes. Then, they need to hear. Jesus told us to pray that the Father send laborers into His harvest (John 4:35) – to bring Christians across their path that they would be receptive to.
2 Timothy 2:24-26 24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,
25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.
It Takes Faith
We’ve already read Mark 9:14-27, where the disciples were unable to cast a demon out of an epileptic boy.
Mark 9:21-24 AMP 21 And [Jesus] asked his father, How long has he had this? And he answered, From the time he was a little boy.
22 And it has often thrown him both into fire and into water, intending to kill him. But if You can do anything, do have pity on us and help us.
23 And Jesus said, [You say to Me], If You can do anything? [Why,] all things can be (are possible) to him who believes!
24 At once the father of the boy gave [an eager, piercing, inarticulate] cry with tears, and he said, Lord, I believe! [Constantly] help my weakness of faith!
Notice how the boy’s father was looking at the situation: “I asked Your disciples to help, but they weren’t able to do anything. If You are able to do anything, please help us.” Jesus turned it right back at him: “’If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” The father was waiting for Jesus to do something, “if” He had the power and ability. But Jesus showed him that his own faith and belief had a part to play. And praise, God, he got the message.
It requires faith to cast out demons. You have to know who you are, and believe in the authority that you have been given. And you cannot be afraid. Demons will sense your fear and uncertainty, and will not obey you.
Matthew 17:19-21 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
Jesus flat out tells the disciples that they failed because of their lack of faith, and talked about what faith can do.
Verse 21 has given rise to the belief that certain types of demons will leave when you fast and pray. But I think people are missing the point. Notice Jesus did not say, “OK, boys, here’s one of those deaf and dumb demons, so we’re going to need to fast and pray.” No. He commanded it to come out, just as He did any other demon He encountered. Jesus had already done His fasting and praying before.
I don’t believe Jesus is saying that this type of demon will come out by prayer and fasting, but that this type of faith – the type that can cast out a deep-rooted demon, or that can move mountains – will go forth only if you have been praying and fasting.
(Romans 10:17) Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. But to do the types of exploits that Jesus did, you are also going to need to be led by the Spirit – to hear God’s voice and do what He says. And developing that kind of sensitivity requires fellowship and prayer, and fasting.
Notice it is always prayer and fasting. The whole purpose of fasting is putting natural things aside so you can focus on the spiritual. If you are fasting but not praying, you’re just dieting.
To be continued in Part Three
