When Demons Attack

And so it begins...

I was driving home and I suddenly felt like I had 300 pounds sitting on my back. I could literally feel a weight pressing down on my back and shoulders. 
"What is this! What am I going to do? How did this happen"? 
These and many more were my thoughts. My first reaction was not, "Is this a demon on my back?" I had no experience with such things and was clueless. 
But---my "theology" of demons was about to become real.

The news

In the previous hours I had received some very bad news about my wife. Something had happened and I needed to help deal with it. But what help was I going to be while I was walking around with this weight on my shoulders?

When I pulled in the driveway it was late and I was tired, but this matter must be discussed. My wife was awake and we talked. I discovered that she was having many vicious demonic attacks and had indeed done something very uncharacteristic for her. Demonic attacks are not uncommon for her, so I wasn't initially surprised--until... She told me that in her dream she was told by the demon that he was "about to bring it to her front door". What does that mean! Well, this "thing" that happened with her was the front door and, I, the next victim of the demons.

Demons or the Holy Spirit?

I had always believed in demons and even knew my wife struggled, but, as far as I knew, they had never touched me and I was fairly unaffected. I had always prayed for her and tried to console her, but I never knew what it was really like to actually be assaulted by demons. Now I know. It's not something tangible and a little difficult to describe, but isn't this the same with the Holy Spirit? This I can tell you, that you will know the difference because the Holy Spirit brings life, love, patience, and joy. The demons bring lies, confusion, accusations and darkness--it's oppression.   The Holy Spirit will NEVER oppress you, but He will lift you up.

How long, oh Lord?

While we have all power over demons, that power is only in Christ and by the Spirit.
"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God". 
When we are weak and give belief to the accusations, the demons gain more power over us. They can never defeat us, but they sure can beat the crap out of us---if we let them. Fight the good fight and resist. They will flee when you fight back.
"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you".
Unfortunately, sometimes we don't even fight. When demons offer us something pleasing to our flesh, we happily walk straight on into defeat.

The Whole Armor of God

In Ephesians we read this:
"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 
Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication."
We know this is true, but what does it look like? If you are like me, you know this to be true, but it is not practiced in your life, or if it is, it is only with lip service. Admit it--it's hard to deal with intangible things. I know it was for me. But it's not intangible anymore--it's as real as the air we breathe!

Our defense plan

There is a movie out there that depicts a man in a futuristic battle and he is about to get shot. When the bullets fly at him, he simply and casually puts up his hands and the bullets stop in mid air. If you want to see it, google "Matrix neo stops bullets". Shield of faith
This is the best picture I have ever seen of what Paul is trying to show us. When we are walking in the Spirit--we can simply and casually put up our shield of faith and stop the bullets of demons.

Let's go through the items Paul instructs us to fight with.

Belt of truth: The first thing Paul instructs us to do is tighten our belt of truth. Demons are liars and the devil is the father of all lies. Jesus is truth. We can never forget that Jesus is truth and demons lie.

Breastplate of righteousness: Our righteousness is found in Jesus. When the demons tell us we are no good, and that God should see our sin, all we need to do is remind them that they are right. Our righteousness is not because of our goodness or sinlessness, it is because of Jesus and what He did. Tell the demons that "It is written". This is what Jesus said.

Gospel of peace:  The gospel brings peace not enmity with God. Don't believe the demons when they try and convince you of anything different. The life of the child of God is one of internal peace. Believe it and walk in it. Remind the demons of this truth.

Helmet of salvation: This is the knowledge that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Forever secure in the arms of Jesus. Don't believe the lies of the accusers when they tell you your sin has separated you from God and you are going to hell. It's not true.

Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God: Jesus replied to the devil, "It is written". Speak the promises of the Word of God back to the demons.

Shield of faith: With all these other items secured, you can stand up against the demons with your shield of faith. You can boldly hold it up and tell the demons that you are, "saved by faith".

So you see, our only defense is knowledge based. Truth, righteousness, peace, salvation, written word, faith. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.

Encounters with the demons


Demons are not stupid. They have been around for a long time. Not too long ago our son was having recurring dreams. He said there was something in the closet and it was trying to lure him in. He always woke up terrified. This was during the same time that my wife was struggling. My daughter also struggled with recurrent anger problems. When we identified this as potential demons, we began to pray and use our full armor of God and things subsided.
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy".
My wife has had ongoing problems with demons that we have identified as going all the way back to her childhood. She grew up in a "haunted house" and there was a creepy dude who lived down the street from her. From the early dabbling with the "haunted house" and weird goings on in the neighborhood, she eventually got into witchcraft. Fast forward twenty years and she has terrible recurrent dreams. Things spoken to her in these dreams are then repeated via messenger by her old creepy neighbor. The things spoken are always lies, confusion, accusations and darkness--oppression. I am learning that these demons don't give up easily. We continue to put on the full armor of God and are seeing success.

Where does my help come from?

Pentecostals understand these things, but when you are living in a world of Baptists and Presbyterians, it can be difficult to find any who understand. While the Pentecostals may have gotten a little carried away with blaming the devil for everything, I believe some Baptists and Presbyterians might have forgotten about the war we are in.
Beloved brothers and sister want to help--they even try to help--but I think many think it's just crazy talk. They see it plastered all over the pages of scripture, but they don't recognize it right in front of them. I'm guilty. Recent events have taught me a lot. It has increased my prayer life--both in quantity and in quality. My previous prayers were too small, but we have a great, big God who can do more than we can imagine or even think.
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us."
I hope my beloved Baptist and Presbyterian friends who are reading this will ask God to open their eyes to the war that we are engaged in. He will do it. I know many of you are active in the fight, but like me, I think a little more understanding of spiritual warfare would do you good. Ask God--He will not disappoint.

Another encounter

Scott Stapp, the lead singer of Creed, wrote an autobiography. Scott grew up in a Christian home with an abusive dad. He has suffered tremendously in his adult life, but remains a believer in the saving work of Jesus Christ. The most important thing I picked up on in his book, which he downplayed, was the brief period in his childhood when he saw demons in his childhood room. One even told him he had better stop talking about Jesus or he would be killed. This terrified young Scott and he used to sleep at the foot of his parents bed. If you read the book, you will see that these demons have tormented his dad all his life and have also been tormenting Scott.
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy".

Final words
Ephesians 4:27 "and give no opportunity to the devil".


I'm sure that many of you have your own demon stories and we for sure don't want to bring any glory to demons, but we must take them seriously. They hate us and want to destroy us. They will stop at nothing to complete their task. Pray always.
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error".

Demon/Angel battle artwork courtesy of John Patsakios
John's artwork


Song:
Peace