Satan's Demons...

Satan's Demons...

The Scriptures indicate that the work of Satan is accomplished by a host of spirit beings called "demons". The meaning of the Greek word daimonion is demon. Daimonion, occurs about sixty times in the gospels, Acts and Revelation. "Demons" are "unclean spirits" and also "evil spirits".

The original King James Version regularly translates daimonion as "devil". This has led to endless confusion. The English word devil is actually derived from the Greek word diabolos, which has no direct relationship with daimonion. Diabolos means "slanderer". In all but three occurrences in the New Testament, it is a title of Satan himself. In this sense it is used only in the singular form. There are many demons but only one devil.

Satan is given this title because his primary activity is to slander- that is, to defame a person's character. First and foremost, Satan defames the character of God Himself in the Garden of Eden, when he suggested to Adam and Eve that God was not treating them fairly by withholding from them the knowledge of good and evil. Second, Satan defames the character of all those who in any way represent God. This is his primary weapon against the servants of God. All the main translations subsequent to the KJV have observed the distinction between diabolos and daimonion, and have translated diabolos as "devil" and daimonion as "demon".

Unfortunately, there is another area of confusion that has not been cleared up in some of the modern translations. The Greek noun daimon gives rise to a verb daimonizo, which occurs about twelve times in the New Testament. The obvious English equivalent of this verb is demonize , which Collins English Dictionary defines as "to subject to demonic influence". In the New Testament this verb occurs only in the passive form: "to be demonized". In the original KJV, it is translated regularly as "to be possessed of [or with] a devil or devils". Most modern versions have correctly changed devil to demon, but incorrectly retain the form to be possessed.

The problem with this form is that, to English ears, the word possess immediately suggests ownership. To be "possessed"- by a devil or demon- implies that a person is "owned" by a devil or demon. But there is no basis for this in the Greek word daimonizo, which conveys no suggestion of ownership, but means merely "to subject to demonic influence".

Obviously the form of words we use is of vital importance. It is one thing to say to a person, "You are subject to demonic influence". It is quite another to say, "You are possessed by a demon", or worse still, to say, "You are possessed by the devil".

Let me say emphatically that there is nothing in the verb daimonizo to imply possession. Personally I believe that every born again Christian sincerely seeking to live for Christ belongs to Christ and is owned by Him. It is monstrous to suggest that such a person belongs to the devil or is owned by the devil.

On the other hand, a born again Christian can be subjected to demonic influences. Such a Christian undoubtedly belongs to Christ, yet there are areas of his or her personality that have not come under the control of the Holy Spirit. It is these areas that may still be subject to demonic influence.

The child of God is warned that he is faced with certain spiritual enemies (Eph. 6:11,12). First the devil is named, then refrence is made to "spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places". Also, there is mention made of "the prince of the power of the air, the spirits that are now at work in the hearts of the sons of disobedience" (Eph.2:2). It seems clear enough that the warning includes the mulitudes of demons who join in the warfare Satan is waging against God and the people of God.

These beings possess non-material bodies. Yet, they are personalities, as Satan is a personality. They operate above the laws of the natural realm and are invisible. As spirit beings, they have an intellectual nature and seem to possess superhuman knowledge. Without doubt, they are present in certain spiritistic phenomena for ocultic purposes of today. They masquerade as spirits of the departed through channelers.

As to their moral nature, like their head they are evil and depraved. This is in contrast to the angels of God, who are sinless. The moral depravity of demons is shown in Scripture by the harmful effects some of them produced in their victims (mark 1:26; Luke 4:35). Fleshly uncleanness and base sensual gratifications are the result of demon influence over the human personality. Demons figure largely in the moral collapse of any people who yield to gross sinfulness.

Our Lord had many bouts with the demon world. Demons seemed to know who He was (Mark 1:24); they acknowledged Him as God's Son (Mark 5:7); they obeyed Him (Matt.8:16); they sought to conceal His Saviourhood ( I John 4:1-3).

This host of evil creatures opposes God's purposes and hinders man's welfare. Eventually, all demons will be consigned to the lake of fire and brimstone, along with Satan, where they will be Tormented forever (Matt.25:41; Rev. 20:10).

A CLASH OF SPIRIT

A CLASH OF SPIRIT

What happens when you as a Christian meet someone that smiles and says all the right things but leaves you feeling rejected?

That is a clash of spirit and it will linger upon your heart until you have either fully discerned it or foolishly rationalized it away. If you try to pass it off as a mistake on your part and think you misread them, you may be allowing Satan to undermine your spiritual discernment causing you to doubt yourself in the Lord.

In the natural, we are all subject to making mistakes, but when your spirit becomes troubled, it is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit protecting you from something that lurks ahead and we should not ignore it. When we are in fellowship with the Lord, we are in the pursuit of truth and nothing can hide from us. No persons smile can hide the rejection we are feeling.

When we walk into an empty church sanctuary and feel the presence of the Lord but when we encounter the leaders of that church we become grieved, it is a clash of spirit.

The Holy Spirit is showing us Gods willingness to pour out His Spirit and also revealing to us through the gift of discernment that the work of His Spirit has been quenched.

When this happens, it is important that you receive the full measure of Gods presence that He had intended for the people to receive. You evaporate the presence of God where He is being grieved and then God uses you in pouring it out on those who are willing to receive.

Like a sponge soaks up water so it can be dispensed elsewhere.

When the glory of the Lord has departed from one place, it will rest upon another. It never dies. The river of God’s living water will always continue to flow.

Jesus said, "If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink." This is the constant refilling process of the Holy Ghost. As people freely receive the Spirit of God, they must freely give of the Spirit of God. Rivers of living water come upon us so it can flow out to others. If someone obstructs that flow, the river will bypass that person and flow around Him.

Living water will always take the path of least resistance. The more we yield to the Spirit of God, the more of His Spirit He will pour out through us.

Pastor Tilson Shumate
Shekinah Fellowship

Old Testament Incident...

Old Testament Incident...

Following the victory in the Garden of Eden, Satan is next seen in sharp outline in his contention with God about saintly Job. The time is about 2000 BC. Job, a very rich land owner in the land of UZ, was outstanding in his spiritual life. Even the testimony of God concerning him was to the effect that Job was "a perfect [mature] and upright man, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil" (Job 1:1).

The style of writing employed in the inspired book of Job is that of poetic religious drama. The first scene shows the prosperity, happiness, and righteousness of Job. The next scene shifts to heaven and the throne of God. Evidently, this is one of the occasions on which the various angels in charge of administering the Lord's vast holdings in the earth came to report on the state of the universe. We note that in brazen shamelessness Satan accompanies them to give his report of earthly conditions.

God challenges Satan by calling his attention to the blameless character of His servant Job. Satan counters by arguing that Job lives righteously simply because God grants him favors; he finds that it pays off handsomely to serve the Lord. Satan's fiendish insinuation is that Job is not serving from a sincere, loving heart, but for strictly selfish reasons. Satan's challenge to God is that if Job were stripped of his abundance, he would turn on God and curse Him to His face.

How amazing is the effrontery of this impudent, vindictive, irreverent creature! One wonders that God does not immediately blast him into nonexistence...BAM! But God intends to use Satan. He gives permission for Satan to take from Job all his possessions but not his health nor his life. Exulting, Satan goes from the presence of the Lord to afflict the innocent Job.

The next scene is that day of unspeakable tragedy. In one 24~hour period, Job is subjected to a succession of unthinkable catastrophes, which leave him without possessions, home, children. Yet, the scene closes with Job's bowing before the will of God and in complete sincerity resigning himself to whatever God will send. Job does not blame God nor charge Him with wrong motives. Placing himself in the hands of the Lord, he bows his heart before Him and waits.

Really, the victory here is one for God. It is proven that God has not purchased the loyalty of Job with His bounteous gifts. Satan is utterly wrong. His charge that God is acting in duplicty is in error. God and His faithful servant Job are completely vindicated.

The drama continues. The next scene is another report day, when the sons of God (the angels) present themselves before the Lord. As previously, Satan comes with them. Again God throws down the challenge to Satan with reference to Job. Satan's scathing reply is that he is still right, and that Job's loyalty to God is only "skin deep". If Job's health were taken from him, Satan contends, his false character would be only too apparent. Again God consents, giving Satan permission to afflict Job in his body, but not to kill him. Satan gleefully goes forth to lay upon Job's body an excruciatingly painful and loathsome disease.

The writer of the Book of Job continues with a long discussion by four friends of Job, on questions to his misfortunes. They have come to comfort, but they remain to blame him. Job, though somewhat shaken, again yields himself to the will of God and accepts from Him what He has allowed. God is vindicated once more in His faith in His servant.

Some startling facts appear here. Evidently Satan is in possession of considerable power in the earth. He seems to have authority to stir up robbers, brigands, and thugs to attack and rob Job (1:15,16). Evidently, to some degree he controls the wind and sends it forth in fury (1:19). He sends down fire (lightning) from heaven (1:16)

Notice a still more striking fact: Satan has access to heaven, to the throne of God, is able to talk with the Lord, and even to contradict Him. Many reasoned that such an encounter of the Holy God with a creature so vile would be impossible. The very holiness of God, it is said, would reach out to turn the creature into oblivion...BAM! But this is not so, for Satan came not only once but twice into the presence of God with the angels.

Consider, too, the well-known character of Satan again asserting itself. He is the enemy of God and the accuser of the people of God. The purpose of his appearance before God was to vilify the character of one of God's servants whom God alredy had declared perfect and upright.

A New Testament counterpart to Job, in a way, was the apostle Peter, as pictured in Luke 22:31. Our Lord revealed to Peter that Satan had requested permission to "sift him as wheat", to tempt God's servant. This was granted, with the sad result that Peter grievously sinned. He failed the test.

The significant teaching in this is that Satan's machinations, although cunning, are restricted. HE COULD NOT TOUCH JOB'S POSSESIONS NOR HIS HEALTH WITHOUT GOD'S EXPRESS PERMISSION. Nor dared he to tempt Peter until the Lord allowed him to do so.

New Testament Opposition...

New Testament Opposition...

In the New Testament the truth concerning the devil receives full treatment. While Satan always has been bitterly opposed to the will and the way of God, his most powerful hostility is exercised against the incarnate Son of God. The devil understood that the Incarnation was the method by which God intended ultimately to bring the plans of Satan to final and complete judgment. Therefore, the fiend marshaled his forces to thwart in every way the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

At the time of the Saviour's birth, Satan instigated the beastly plot through Herod the Great to destroy the infant King (Matt. 1:16-18). At the age of 12, the Boy Jesus was overlooked and left behind by preoccupied parents (Luke 2:42-49). A number of times during the three and one half years of Christ's ministry on the earth, attempts were made upon His life (John 5:18). At Nazareth, the religious leaders, inspired by Satan, attempted to push Him over a cliff. In the temple, they took up stones to kill Him. Leaders of the people sent officers to arrest Him.

However, it was in the Garden of Gethsemane that the fiercest battle was waged. Christ had known in advance of this imminent conflict with the devil. He had announced, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me" (John 14:30). This ment that the victory was not to be Satan's. There was nothing in Him to which Satan could appeal.

The death of Christ had been prophesied. It must be accomplished on the cross- the Lamb of God dying for the sins of the world. If this death occured in any other way, the Word of God would be nullified. In the darkened heart of a fiend was the plot to crush out the life of the Son of God as He prayed.

The words of the suffering Saviour are the strongest that the original Greek contains. Christ said His soul was "exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death" (Matt.26:38). The evangelist Mark wrote that the Lord was "sore amazed and very heavy" (14:33). Luke tells of "an agony...his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (22:44).

It is the prayer of the Saviour that the intensity of the struggle is revealed. Three times He asked the Father that if He were willing, this cup should pass from Him. It is unthinkable that Christ was referring to His death on the morrow. He had set His face to go straight to the cross. The cup of Gethsemane was death by unseen demon forces. God sent an angel to strengthen His Son, and Satan was defeated in his attempt to kill Christ.

Defeat at the cross...

Defeat at the cross...

It seems evident that when Satan caused our first parents to sin in the Garden of Eden, he wrested from them the authority with which God had intended them to rule over His dominions. From that day to this, Satan has been the prince of this world. Both the physical world and mankind have been under his control. This is revealed in the temptation of the Lord (Matt. 4:8,9).

Satan showed Christ the kingdoms of the world in panorama. He offered to give Christ those kingdoms if He would but fall down and worship him. This offer of Satan seems a hollow boast until we realize that he did ruthlessly seize control of the earth from Adam. So his proposition to Christ was a bona fide one.

One of the reasons our Lord came into this world was to regain from Satan the authority which he wrongfully possessed. God's method of doing this was to deal completely with the matter of sin.

It is the fact of sin which gives power to Satan. When sin entered the human picture, Adam and Eve became slaves to it. Satan, who had brought about their temptation, assumed control over the physical world and the world of human beings.

Yet, God ultimately holds control, and no one is more aware of this than Satan. The earth, its physical forces, and its human life, are intrinsically God's. It has pleased Lord to refrain from instant (BAM!) destruction of Satan, in order to bring about a complete and final reckoning with sin. Essentially, Satan is the evil person he became because of his sin. In like manner, human beings are lost, sinful creatures because of their sin.

The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to deal with sin once and for all. He is in Himself God's complete answer to this question. Whereas, the penalty of sin is death, the death of Christ fully paid the penalty. Sin was thus acknowledged to be what God says it is. But the penalty of this virulent thing is overcome. The price is paid. Death for the sinner is accomplished in the death of the sinner's substitute (Rom. 5:6-8).

In His death, Christ also destroyed or nullified the authority of Satan ( I John 3:8; Heb. 2:14). It is by the cross that the false claims of Satan were invalidated. The cross, in all its horror, was a mighty victory for God and righteousness. It was the declaration of deliverance and liberty for all those enslaved by Satan.

As of that moment, Satan's defeat, which had been prophesied, was demonstrated. "And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it [ the cross]" (Col.2:15).