The devil is a liar. Jesus said so in John 8:44: “He [the devil] is a liar and the father of it.” Lying is the one characteristic of evil that most epitomizes Satan’s kingdom. The devil lies about anything and everything, but he is particularly adept at lying about spiritual warfare. These lies don’t always originate with unsaved people. They can also come from Christians, some who mean well but are terribly misinformed. The most common falsehoods about demons are debunked in our books and especially in our International School of Exorcism (ISE). If you want the truth and the whole story, enroll in ISE now. (Enroll by clicking here.) For now, here’s a brief response to the most common prevarications concerning deliverance and spiritual warfare.
Christians can’t have demons. This conclusion is due to a misunderstanding of the tripartite nature of the human condition. Demons can’t dwell in the regenerated spirit of a Christian, but they can inhabit those portions of the soul/mind/psyche which have not been surrendered to Christ. Few believers get demons after being saved; but many have evil spirits which are a holdover from their life before conversion. Most demons in Christians are there because of generational evil, and demonic rights which were granted by ancestors. Day after day I minister to good Christians who are, nevertheless, tormented in various ways because of sins of ancestors. This truth is easily demonstrable to anyone in deliverance ministry and is only discounted by those who have no empirical knowledge base for the lie that Christians can’t have demons.
There’s no need to break curses. Confusion concerning this issue is due to a misunderstanding of “positional” vs. “conditional” spiritual truth. Positionally, Christ’s death on the cross delivered us from the power of generational curses, according to Galatians 3:13, but this fact is not automatic and must be personally appropriated by faith. In a similar way, we are not saved by the substitutionary atonement of Christ just because His crucifixion is a fact. We must act on that fact by faith and receive it as a personal, conditional truth. In the same way, our curses are broken when we truly believe in and confess the power of Christ’s blood to break curses.
Once saved, no evil spirit can influence you. If this were true, no Christian would ever be guilty of grave sins such as stealing, alcohol abuse, drug addictions, or sexual misconduct. But it’s clear that Christians can and do sin. Such transgressions can’t always be dismissed as works of the world or the flesh. Sometimes evil actions are the consequence of seducing evil spirits which draw Christians into grave moral evil. It is disingenuous to say that great men and women of God who have fallen morally were just victims of fleshly desires. That is a partial truth that ignores the role that deceiving demons play in destroying the work of God.
If you are under demonic attack and you believe one of these lies, there is little hope for you. You cannot overcome something which you deny exists. You can’t conquer an obstacle when you refuse to admit that it exists.
An encouraging word: SUPERSTITION
Isaiah’s condemnation of ancient Judah (2:6) sounds like a headline from today: They are full of superstitions from the East. That pretty much describes America’s fascination with all things Eastern – Transcendental Meditation, Yoga, Ayurvedic medicine, gurus of all sorts. Even the church is caught up in so-called “holy yoga,” which is a misnomer if there ever was one. All the non-Christian philosophies of mysticism can be summed up in a single word – superstition, incredulous beliefs. But the Christian faith is based on clear, historical evidence of God’s dealing with humanity, not some superstition about ethereal realms of spirituality.
