Over the next few weeks I’ll be going through some questions I’ve been asked by some people I know who are just starting to find Jesus. Hopefully these questions will be questions a lot of new Christians are asking, and that God will help me give useful answers that they find helpful.
Question 3: “Are Satan and Demons real? Do they still do things today or was it just the early Church in Acts?”
2 Corinthians 2:11 –
“so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes.”
Satan is alive and well, unfortunately. I tell you this not to frighten you or make you go crazy, seeing Satan everywhere, but as Paul says in Corinthians (see above) we need to be familiar with his schemes in order to not let him outwit us.
Ways in which we misunderstand Satan
“Satan is equal to God”
Simply put, no he’s not. He is not omnipotent or omniscient like God is, because he was created by God as an angelic being[1] to glorify and serve him. Satan however became proud in his heart and desired to become more powerful than God, so he was cast out of Heaven.[2]
Satan can only be in one place at one time, so when someone says “Satan’s really attacking me today” they are most likely wrong. Satan is not personally attacking more than one person, and you have to be pretty special to get the attention of him.[3]
Satan can, however, send his demon ‘minions’ to harass and torment the people of God. This is a far more likely situation, as I will discuss later.
“Satan and Demons don’t still work today”
Again there’s a simple answer, yeah they do. The closing line in the film “Usual Suspects” is “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist” and I can’t say this doesn’t ring true. These days pride isn’t seen as a vice, it’s a virtue. To have ‘great self-esteem’ is seen as an asset to people, but to my eyes it can be more destructive than anything else. The start of all sin in Satan’s heart came when he was consumed by pride, so for him to hide himself as the start point of pride and encourage people to have great ‘self-esteem’ seems like the perfect trick to pull. The more proud people are, the less they feel they need God.
“Satan is the ruler in Hell”
Another misunderstanding, though this one is far more forgivable as it has been promulgated by popular TV Shows such as The Simpsons and South Park
To put it simply, Satan is not ruler of Hell. The time he spends there is going to be when he has a terrible, eternal holiday there when Jesus comes back to open up a can on him.[4]
A little more information
Those are the misconceptions of Satan, here’s some more useful information on him before we move onto the ways in which he works.
Here are some alternate names for him –
· Abaddon (“destroyer”) (Rev.
9:11)
· The god of this world (2 Cor.
4:4)
· Accuser (Rev. 12:10)
· Great Dragon (Rev. 12:9)
· Liar (John 8:44)
· Beelzebul (Matt. 12:24)
· Belial (2 Cor. 6:15)
· Murderer (John 8:44)
· Deceiver (Rev. 12:9)
· Devil (Luke 4:13)
· Ruler of this world (John
12:31)
· Enemy (Matt. 13:28, 39)
· Satan (Acts 26:18)
· Evil One (Matt. 13:28, 39)
· Serpent (Rev. 12:9)
· Father of lies (John 8:44)
· Tempter (1 Thess. 3:5)
Demons are fallen angels. When Satan rebelled against God he took fully a third of the Angelic host with him, as they too opposed God.[5]
How Satan works
Satan works in many ways, but all of his evil deeds and schemes can, essentially, be put into two main categories – ordinary demonic and extraordinary demonic. I’ll start explaining the differences now, with practical examples to illustrate their implementation.
Ordinary Demonic
When most people think of something ‘demonic’ they instantly think of the Hollywood movie, Rosemary’s Baby, Paranormal Activity, Exorcist-esque stuff; so spinning heads, people crawling up walls, physical manifestation of the skin and voice changing. All of this is demonic, but it’s in the other category, the extraordinary demonic. The ordinary demonic is much more subtle, and often goes unnoticed.
So how do Satan and Demons attack us in a way that goes unnoticed? Well, The Bible tells us there are two ways – the World, and the Flesh.
The World
1 John 2:15-16 –
“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.”
Here John speaks of the World as three parts –
Lust of the flesh – “For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure”
Lust of the eye – “a craving for everything we see”
Boastful pride of life – “and pride in our achievements and possessions”.
As Christians we should be in the World, but not of it. This means we are to live a life contrary to the way the sinful, fallen world lives. We are to be on mission in culture, living a counter-cultural, God-glorifying life. There is direct teaching on this in The Bible –
1 John 2:15 –
“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.”
Romans 12:2 –
“Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
So we are not to love the World as it is against God (hence why Satan is called the God of the World in 2 Corinthians 4:4), and we are to not allow the World to shape the way we act, as that shaping will not be in accordance to God’s teaching.
The Flesh
Galatians 5:19-21 –
“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God
The Flesh is our natural predisposition to rebel against God, and to lust after that which is not pleasing to God. This includes putting our own interests above those of God. In short, the flesh is an internal resistance to obey God.
So basically, when the World and the Flesh team up we get images and sensations from the World that give us a lust of the eye; like “that’s a pretty gal, I want her”. Then the Flesh gets involved and we have this burning desire to have the thing we are lusting after. We then have two ways to deal with this – chase the thing we lust for, and put that above God, or follow the Holy Spirit (our internal voice of truth and purity) and do what is pleasing to God.
Satan baits the hook of ordinary demonic sin in incredibly subtle ways. For instance he can bait it with sexual sin,[6] idolatry,[7] bitterness,[8] false religion/teaching/Jesus,[9] lies[10] and foolishness/drunkenness.[11]
I bet none of you, waking up this morning would have called the guy having an affair on his wife (sexual sin) and lying about it (lies) demonic, but he totally is. Watch out for the snares of the enemy, they’re many, they’re subtle and they’re dangerous.
Extraordinary Demonic
I bet, however, the guy whose head is on backward and eyes have gone totally black you would be more than happy to call demonic. Well, he’s the victim of the extraordinary demonic attack.
Extraordinary, I feel, can also be broken into two main categories – physical and mental.
Physical Extraordinary
Acts 8:7-8 –
“Many evil spirits were cast out, screaming as they left their victims. And many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city.”
The physical extraordinary demonic attack can come in a few forms, and all of them are some description of physical manifestation or feeling. Varying from actual physical harm[12], where a person is physically abused with injury or a prolonged disability; torment, where a person is plagued by evil spirits and often demonized; and false miracles, where counterfeit signs are used to draw people away from God, even if the miracles are said to be done in the name of the Lord.[13]
I won’t dwell too long on this category as a) it can be quite a frightening, albeit rare, experience and b) physical stuff is fairly self-explanatory, no one in their right mind would see someone who has their head on backwards and a forked tongue and say “well, he’s just misunderstood” or “he has such-and-such disease”.
Mental Extraordinary
John 8:44 –
“For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
The mental extraordinary demonic attack is much more subtle, and can be very damaging for a prolonged period of time as it can go unnoticed. There is one big theme to mental extraordinary demonic attack –
Accusation
This has three aspects to it. The first is having vain regrets that you have no need to cling onto. This can be things you did wrong in the past that you know God has forgiven you for but for some reason it just keeps popping up. In the store, see a blonde haired girl and POP! “You should have never slept with that blonde girl before you were a Christian, you didn’t even know her! You’re a bad person.”
In vain regrets there is also condemnation, where we feel like we’ve fallen short of what God asks for from us, and that we are judged on these short-comings.
One way of knowing how to spot whether you have this accusation going on in your life is the second aspect – second person mode of speech. When you have this negative self-talk running in your head do you hear “you” or “I”?
For instance do you hear “you’re fat” or “you’re ugly” or “you’re worthless”, or is it “I’m fat”, “I’m ugly”, “I’m worthless”? If it’s in the second person it may be accusation from the enemy.
The third aspect is just a sense of general guilt. You just feel guilty all the time, and sometimes you don’t even want to tell people because you know it sounds silly. Are there things you feel guilty about that you don’t like to tell people you feel guilty about, because you know they’ll say “that’s stupid”? If so it’s not the Holy Spirit, who convicts on specific sin, it’s more likely accusation from your enemy.
How do Christians respond to all this?
Hebrews 2:14-15 –
“Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.”
Colossians 1:14-15 –
“For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.”
As Christians we should not fear the enemy, his servants, their works and effects, for we have power over them through Christ Jesus. When you died to sin and became alive to Jesus[14] you took on the in-dwelling power of the Holy Spirit; through him you can turn your back to sin, and order away evil spirits. I do this frequently for myself, my family, and particularly my girlfriend – quietly in prayer just ask God to keep the enemy from them, and banish anything currently tormenting them, in Jesus’ name.
All you husbands out there – do this with your wives and kids frequently.
One final warning
Luke 10:19-20 –
“Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.””
Don’t allow yourself to be proud because of your God-given authority over spirits and demons! Satan’s biggest sin, the sin that is pregnant with all other sin, is pride. Allow yourself to be proud at your peril, as this is the greatest snare the enemy has.
Instead, pick up your Bible, humbly submit to God’s teaching, and learn Scripture. Ephesians 6 says “take [up] the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”, meaning we should know our Bible and be able to use it as a sword. It is our most useful weapon against the enemy.[15]
Don’t get hyper-spiritual either, seeing Satan everywhere you turn. Ask the Holy Spirit for discretion so that you’re not trying to cast demons out of people passing by who have an awkward itch to get to and look kind of like they’re under attack (I do not, under any circumstances, encourage you try to cast out a demon anyway).
I know this has been a long one, and thank you for hanging in there. I hope there was a lot of sound, practical teaching in there that has made you think.
I pray that this post has helped God’s people prepare themselves better for the warfare they are undoubtedly going to encounter in their walk with Christ. I ask that the Holy Spirit embolden all of God’s followers to take heart in the fact that Christ has defeated all of Satan’s plans and, as Christians, we get to share in that triumph.
If you have any questions for me to answer feel free to comment them in the box below and I will endeavour to answer them when I can.
[1] Ezekiel 28:14 says Satan was created as a guardian -“I ordained and anointed you as the mighty angelic guardian.”
[2] See Isaiah 14:11–23; Ezekiel 28:1–19.
[3] For instance, Satan himself tried to tempt Jesus to sin. He goes after the big fish. See Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13.
[4] Revelation 20:10 – “Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulphur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
[5] Ezekiel 28:15 – “You were blameless in all you did from the day you were created until the day evil was found in you.”
[6] 2 Corinthians 7:5.
[7] 1 John 5:18-21.
[8] Ephesians 4:17-5:2.
[9] 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, 1 Timothy 4:1-2 and 2 Corinthians 11:1-4 respectively.
[10] John 8:44.
[11] Ephesians 5:8-21.
[12] See Matthew 9:32–33, 12:22–23 and Acts 8:4–8.
[13] See particularly 2 Thessalonians 2:9. Also see Acts 16:16.
[14] Romans 6:11 – “So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.”
[15] For more discussion on Ephesians 6, see my post on Fighters for Christ - http://heartofcorinth.blogspot.com/2011/02/fighters-for-christ.html
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