Spiritual Deliverance

---

I. Preface - Turn To Jesus For Freedom From Demons

------------------------------------------------------------------

Jesus Christ stated that He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). His name is “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion” (Ephesians 1:21). Jesus is at the right hand of the Father has all angels and authorities made subject unto Him (1 Peter 3:22). This means that any who call upon His name with faith as their Saviour and with a repentant heart about their sinful life will be saved. Not only saved, but delivered from demonic possession, and the oppression of unclean spirits. The devils tremble before the name and authority of Jesus Christ (James 2:19). This is seen over and over again throughout the gospels and Acts – from the man possessed of an unclean spirit in the synagogue (Luke 4:34) to the Legion of 2000 demons possessing the man in the country of the Gadarenes (Mark 5:1-20). In each instance, the Lord confronts demons possessing a person, the demons are terrified of Him and are cast out by His authority. Jesus Christ can and will deliver those from the devil who call upon His name.

However, it is important to repent and believe the gospel as well to receive the Holy Ghost (Mark 1:8 and Mark 1:14-15). Our Lord Jesus made it clear, that when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it searches for rest in dry places and finds none. Then it returns to the man that it was driven out of it, finds him empty, and brings seven more devils worse than itself along (Matthew 12:43-45). Thus, a man or woman possessed by demons can have them driven out and be delivered temporarily. These demons, however, will be back and if that man or woman is not born again, they will make the man or woman they return to worse off than they were before. Jesus Christ is the promised Saviour that cleanses us of all sin (Matthew 16:16, Colossians 2:13, and 1 John 1:9). Be sure to repent and be willing to turn from your life of sin, accept Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour that died to pay for the punishment you deserve in hell, and you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit if you believe with all your heart (Acts 8:37). This not only gives you the wonderful gift of eternal life by the grace of God (John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9), but also gives you protection from the devil and his fallen angels. From then on, pray to God and in Jesus Christ’s name, resist the devil, and he shall flee from you (James 4:7).

To be saved and be delivered from demonic possession, please pray after this manner:

God, I pray to you in the name of your Son Jesus. Please save me from my sins and the punishment I deserve for them. I know that I have sinned against you, but I know that you will forgive me in the name of Jesus. Please give me the gift of eternal life, God. Please get the devil out of my life and protect me, God. All this I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

But you can pray to God in your own words too, as long as you are praying to God for salvation in the name of His Son Jesus that died for your sins.

Bless our High Priest, our King and our Lord, Jesus Christ. All to the glory of God the Father.

Amen.

II. Introduction To Demons

---------------------------------

According to the King James Bible, demons are also known as:

• Devils
• Unclean Spirits
• Familiar Spirits
• Evil angels
• Evil spirits

It can be dangerous to do independent research about fallen angels, because there is so much false information in the world about them, whether you research online or in bookstores. In addition, there is a lot of information from cults, witches, and others who practice summoning demons available out there, and this is highly dangerous to research. These groups of people are blinded by Satan, and thus cooperate with demons and don't understand that Satan and his angels are liars and that they are caught in a web of lies. Putting that sort of false information in your mind can open you up to allowing demons into your life. Instead, it is best to go to the most important source of information in the world - the Holy Bible of God, which has been preserved in the King James Bible.

God's word is the authoritative source on what mankind needs to know about Satan and his angels. If you are guided by the Holy Ghost as a saved, born again Christian, the Lord can show you many spiritual facts about demons from His word if it is according to His will. If you are not saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, and are not sure if you are going to Heaven, I would recommend rereading the first two paragraphs of this page, and reading other sections of this site. Pray to God for salvation while putting all your faith in the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross for you. Then if you truly of a repentant heart, God will bless you with His Spirit and now the Bible will come alive for you. Then you can begin to research God's word in earnest.

I learned a lot about the devil and his angels from God's word, and this is because of my own sixteen years of being demonically possessed and practically worshipping the devils that inhabited my body. Once I was saved, the Spirit of God led me to pour over every part of the Bible that spoke about Satan, false gods, demons, and the people who were possessed by them.

To that end, I will catalogue information on this page that I have learned from God's word, and the page will most likely be updated from time to time as I do more research. The information on this page will not be exhaustive, as I am but one man that Christ saved with His sacrifice on the cross of Calvary and I do not know everything there is to know about demons, or God's angels for that matter. Many other brothers and sisters have been saved out of demonic possession, and you can find links to resources put out by other Christians on the "Helpful Links" page.

III. What Are Demons?

-----------------------------

Before explaining what a demon is, I want to repeat the warning previously given about false information.  When it comes to the topic of angels and demons, it is plagued with a lot of false information. That is why you and I need to focus on what the Bible actually says about angels and demons, rather than external sources. Since we know God always tells the truth, the information contained in the Bible alone is authoritative. Beside that, God created all angels, whether good or evil, and so He knows all about them and should be the one we look to for primary information. All other sources, whether from books, articles, or videos, can only be considered if they do not contradict the Bible and should always be thought of as "secondary sources", and as speculatory.

To answer the question of what a demon is, it is important to know what angels themselves are. After all, a demon is simply an angel in rebellion against God. Angels are called ministering spirits in the Bible:

"But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? 

Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"

Hebrews 1:13-14

This is the purpose of angels in God's creation. To be ministers, or servants, to those men and women who are saved by faith in God as their Redeemer from sin. This is where the idea of a "guardian angel" comes from, because angels are meant to serve mankind. We as men are made in the image of God. Our Creator is a three in one eternal being, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Since we have been created in His image, we too have three parts, the body, the soul, and the spirit. Angels are not made in God's image, and only reflect the spirit and are never said in the Bible to have a soul or a body.

A spirit is an invisible entity, and in the Bible we are told of cherubim, seraphim, and normal angels as the types of spirits that God created. Here are two verses demonstrating the fact that spirits are invisible:

"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:"

Colossians 1:16

"Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,"

Colossians 2:18

The first verse illustrates God's creation of invisible things, such as thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers. These are commonly thought to be ranks or divisions of angels based on authority. Principalities and powers are later mentioned in Ephesians 6 as different ranks of demons that a Christian must wrestle with by faith:

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Ephesians 6:12

The second verse from Colossians 2 shows that man cannot see angels normally, as they are spiritual beings without bodies, while we are temporal beings with bodies.

Finally, one of the chief ways that angels minister or serve mankind is through spiritual comfort and guidance. While there are examples in the Bible of angels directly attacking wicked men, showing that they are akin to Heavenly soldiers, their main influence does indeed appear to be to guide the actions of mankind for God's purposes. Here we see the gospel of Mark that angels came to serve Jesus while He was being tempted by Satan in the wilderness:

"And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. 

And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him."

Mark 1:12-13

Thus the angels serve Jesus just as they serve the men and women that Jesus loves! I will note here that while God did create angels to serve mankind, that angels ultimately answer to God and worship Him as their creator as demonstrated here where angels glorify God together around God's throne:

"And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 

Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."

Revelation 5:11-12

Finally I will note that while angels are indeed invisible, God does allow people to see angels sometimes. In the Bible, whenever men see angels, they almost always take on the form of men in white apparel. Just one example of this is from after the ascension of the resurrected Jesus back into Heaven:

"And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 

Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."

Acts 1:10-11

With this information in mind, we should now have a good foundational knowledge of what angels are. They are invisible spirits created by God to serve mankind, they are organized into different groups like principalities and powers, they worship God, and they can sometimes appear to people in the form of men. There is much more to be learned about angels from the Bible, but this will do for now.

Since we now know what an angel is, it is much easier to say what a demon is. A demon is an angel that is in rebellion against God and now serves Satan instead. In the book of Revelation, Satan is called "the dragon" and he is said to have his own angels, which are his demons:

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 

And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."

Revelation 12:7-9

As we can read in those verses, Satan and his angels were cast out of Heaven when they rebelled, and have now been on earth with us ever since!

Instead of serving mankind and offering comfort as God's angels do, demons seek to rule over mankind and inflict torment. The fact that demons rule over mankind and rule over certain nations can be seen in Daniel 10, where the archangel Michael helped another angel fight two different demonic principalities, the prince of Persia and the prince of Grecia:

"Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come."

Daniel 10:20

Demons are constantly depicted as tormenting people in the Old and New Testaments. Here an example from the New Testament of a boy being tormented by a demon that is possessing him, with the demon trying to get the boy to burn himself or drown himself:

"And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, 

Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. 

And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. 

Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. 

And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour."

Matthew 17:14-18

The motivation for why demons decided to join Satan in his rebellion are never directly stated in the Bible to my knowledge, but we can look to Satan's own motivation for his rebellion against God and we can draw conclusions from there.

The Bible states that Satan was once a cherub called Lucifer before he rebelled against God. However, Lucifer decided that he wanted to become like God because he was lifted up in pride about himself. God created Lucifer to be beautiful and perfect, and this is why Lucifer believed he could overthrow God. Lucifer's motivations are described in Isaiah 12:

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High."

Isaiah 14:12-14

Lucifer desired to ascend into Heaven, put his own throne above all of God's creation, be above the congregation of God, ascend above the heights of the clouds, and be like the Most High God. From then on, he no longer was Lucifer but was now Satan, which means "the adversary", an apt title for the chief devil himself. The fact that Satan is a fallen cherub is described in Ezekiel 28 verses 11-19, and more traits about Satan are given there.

Moving on from Satan himself, we can think about Satan's reasons for rebelling against God and come to the conclusion that demons most likely have a similar motivation as their fallen master does. Demons desire to be above God's creation instead of serving in it just like Satan does, and this is why demons are constantly portrayed in the Bible as possessing people, ruling over nations, or offering demonic "witchcraft" powers to certain people such as divination. The last example may seem like a demon serving someone, but in reality a demon that offers someone a power like divination is actually drawing that person under their power, and only offering the illusion that the man or woman now has a "special gift". The verses from Acts 16 in the Section IV illustrate this principle well.

Demons still operate today and assist Satan in guiding the course of this world. Satan and his demons are the reason why the world has been so wicked throughout history, and why the world is getting more wicked today than ever with addiction to money, pornography, and violence being rampant and widespread. Because they are spirits, demons can influence people to think, speak, and act a certain way. This is described in Ephesians 2:

"And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."

Ephesians 2:1-3

The "prince of the power of the air" described in verse 2 is Satan himself. Notice that the verse says that Satan is the "spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience". This is how Satan and his demons guide the world, is that they work through non-Christians to influence. They don't even have to directly possess people to do this, they have spiritual authority over the earth. This is why Satan is called "the god of this world" in 2 Corinthians 4:4:

"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

2 Corinthians 2:3-4

And it's why Jesus Himself called Satan "the prince of this world":

"Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. 

Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out."

John 12:30-31

So now it should be clear what demons are. Demons are invisible fallen angels that serve the rebellious cherub Satan. Demons influence mankind spiritually, and demons like to rule over man and torment man, which is in direct contradiction for the reasons they were created by God.

With this knowledge about angels and demons in mind, you can read on for some specific Bible verses and explanations in Section IV! I encourage you to either get a physical copy of a King James Bible or a digital copy on a program like "E-Sword", and study along!

IV. Bible Verses About Demons

--------------------------------------

I. Matthew 12:43-45 – Seven more wicked spirits

Jesus states that when an unclean spirit leaves a person he was possessing, he cannot find rest anywhere. So he eventually returns to the person and brings seven worse demons with him. This is why it is important to be saved by faith in the blood of Jesus that He shed for our sins. If you have true faith you will receive the Holy Spirit of God, which will keep the evil spirits from returning.

Notice in these verses that Jesus compares a person’s body to a house. Jesus does this a lot in the gospels, and so do His apostles in the other books of the New Testament. Your body in a spiritual sense is a house, and whatever good or bad things you let inside of your body will dwell there.

II. Matthew 17:14-21 – A young boy possessed by a devil

The disciples of Jesus could not cast the demon that possessed the boy out. Jesus was able to do it because He is God and has authority to order the demons to leave. Jesus tells His disciples that because they didn’t have strong belief, they were unable to cast out the demon. However, Jesus says this demon was a kind that only comes out by prayer to God and fasting. This shows that certain evil spirits are stronger than others and take more belief and prayer to drive away.

III. Mark 1:23-27 – Devil-possessed man frightened of Jesus

A man possessed with a demon is in a synagogue where Jesus is preaching, and it protests against Jesus being there. Jesus tells it to be quiet, and orders it to leave the man. The demon convulses the man’s body before leaving him. This shows that devils are scared of the Son of God. This also shows that people can be possessed by demons and appear to be normal, as this possessed man was standing in the middle of a synagogue and no one noticed anything strange about him.

IV. Mark 5:1-20 – The man possessed by the Legion of demons

A man possessed by over 2000 devils (a legion) is driven crazy, runs around naked, lives among tombs, cuts himself, violently attacks people, and can’t be captured. When Jesus frees the man from possession by sending the demons into a herd of pigs, that man then puts on clothes and is in his right mind. This shows that demon-possession drives some people crazy, and they are considered a danger to society and need to be captured for their own safety and the safety of others.

V. John 13:1-30 – Satan possess Judas Iscariot

The devil puts the idea to betray Jesus into the heart of Judas Iscariot. The night that Jesus eats the last supper with His disciples, Satan directly possesses Judas Iscariot, and Satan causes Judas to leave the building to sell out Jesus to the Pharisees. Judas does not seem to realize he is possessed by Satan, showing that someone can be possessed by demons and not even realize it.

VI. Acts 16:16-18 – A young woman with a fortune-telling spirit

A woman in the city of Philippi is possessed with a demon that allows her to know things about people she shouldn’t know, which is known today as fortune-telling. The apostle Paul is so grieved that the woman is possessed that he eventually calls upon the name of Jesus Christ and orders the spirit to leave her. This angers the people who own the young woman, because they were making money off of her as a fortune teller (called soothsaying or divination in the King James Bible).

VII. Acts 19:13-20 – Jewish exorcists fail to cast out demon

A Jewish man named Sceva and his seven sons go around casting out devils in the name of Jesus. It appears to be working, but eventually they come across a man possessed with a spirit that is stronger than the other demons. It taunts them before beating them and stripping them naked. This shows that the power of the name of Jesus can work even when people who don’t believe in Jesus as the Saviour use it. However, certain demons aren’t as frightened if a person doesn’t have true faith, and can tell someone really doesn’t believe. This is what happened in this case – the vagabond Jewish exorcists didn’t really believe in Jesus as the Saviour, and so lost the spiritual battle with the demon-possessed man.

V. The Most Important Note of All

---------------------------------------

VIII. 1 John 3:8 – Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil

The only true way to overcome the devil and his works is through being saved by Jesus Christ. When a person trusts in Jesus as their Saviour, they can overcome the devil, temptation, sin, and even possession by demons. This is because God gifts the Holy Spirit, also called the Holy Ghost in the Bible, to those who are saved by true faith in His Son Jesus. The Bible says in James 2:19 that the demons also believe there is one God and tremble. So a person has to believe better than the demons, because even the demons know and believe there is a God. A person has to really trust that God sent Jesus to die in their place. In Romans 3:23, it says that we have all sinned. In Romans 6:23, it says that the wages of sin is death, but then it says that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9 says that if we honestly confess Jesus as Lord with our mouth and truly believe on His resurrection in our heart, we shall be saved. Amen.