| SPIRITUAL WARFARE: Areas of Personality Affected by Demons Derek Prince HIS GLORY REIGNS B. Childress Aug 29 2008 0800 A "Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down without walls" Proverbs 25:28. Solomon is comparing the human personality to a city, the walls of which have all crumbled. A person such as Solomon describes has no inner defenses. The personality of a drug addict, for example, has been so broken down that demons of all kinds can come and go freely. There are no defenses left that can keep them out. Such a person needs more than a one-time experience of deliverance. He needs to undergo a process of rehabilitation while his spiritual walls are being rebuilt. This may take months or years. The analogy of a city may also apply to people not enslaved by drugs. Inside every one of us is something analogous to a major city, with all its different localities and residents. I (Derek Prince) lived for a while in Chicago, for example, which has many major areas - department stores and fashionable shops; bus and train terminals; banking and commercial institutions. Using a city as a pattern, I will briefly outline some of the main areas of human personality, indicating the kinds of demons that take up residence in each area. This, I believe, will help you in your own further study, meditation and prayer.
1. Emotions and Attitudes This area of the human personality is assailed by numerous demons. I (Derek Prince) have come to the conclusion that every negative emotion or attitude opens the way for the corresponding demon. A person who has an outburst of anger or sudden fright is, as I said before, not necessarily under the influence of a demon of anger or fear. But if these emotions become obsessive or habitual, then quite probably there is a demon at work. Demons tend to operate in gangs. Typically one particular demon is a "door-opener" - that is, it holds the door open for a succession of other demons to follow. One of the most common door-openers is rejection - a sense of being unwanted, unloved, unimportant. Every human being is born with a deep, innate longing for love and acceptance. When this is absent, the heart suffers an inner wound. It may be that the mother did not want the baby she was carrying in her womb. Or the parents did not love their child, or perhaps they did not know how to demonstrate their love. Undemonstrated love does not meet a child's emotional need. Or the sense of rejection may be caused by the breakup of a close relationship - perhaps a divorce. Whatever the cause, the demon of rejection has gained entrance. There are two different reactions to rejection. One is passive. A person yields to this condition and goes through life with it, but becomes more and more unhappy and withdrawn. The other reaction is aggressive. In this case a person fights back, adopting a don't care attitude and developing a shell of outer hardness. If a person's reaction to rejection is passive, the "gang" that presses in through this open door includes some or all of the following: self-pity, loneliness, misery, depression, despair and finally suicide. Virtually every suicide, I (Derek Prince) believe, is motivated by a demon. It is obvious that a demon of suicide does not enter because a person has already killed himself. It comes to drive a person to suicide. This is usually also true of a demon of murder. It does not come in because a person has already committed murder. Rather, it enters to drive a person to commit murder. Remember that the Bible defines murder primarily as an inner attitude, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer..." (I John 3:15). A woman who has had an abortion almost certainly has a demon of murder, even if she did not realize she was taking human life. She probably cannot be set free until she confesses her sin and repents. This is often also true of those who enabled her to abort her child. On the other hand, if a person's reaction is aggressive, it opens the door to a gang that includes anger, hatred, rebellion, witchcraft, violence, and finally murder: "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry..." (I Samuel 15:23). When people open up to rebellion, witchcraft is likely to follow. This is well illustrated by the many young Americans in the 1960's who went into rebellion and, almost without exception, ended in the occult. 2. The Mind This is probably the main battlefield of the human personality. Some of the characteristic demons are doubt, unbelief, confusion, forgetfulness, indecision, compromise, humanism, and insanity. Usually the people who rely most on their mental abilities are those most open to this kind of demonic attack. I (Derek Prince) recall a Ph.D candidate from one of the Ivy League universities who came to a conference where I (Derek Prince) was teaching. Christopher had heard something about my ministry of deliverance, but vowed before the conference that he would leave just the same as he had come. He attended my meetings and observed all that was going on. But true to his vow, he left the same as he came. While he was in the plane returning to school, however, he experienced such intense pain in his head that he actually thought he was going to die. In his agony he began to pray, and the Lord showed him that it was a demon of doubt. Furthermore, he realized when that demon had entered him. A fellow student, taunting Christopher for being a Christian, had said to him, "Do you really believe Christ fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes?" Christopher had replied, "Well, whether Christ really did that or not is not important. It doesn't affect my faith in Him." That, he realized, had opened the door to the demon of doubt. In his agony, Christopher cried out to the Lord for deliverance. Then he felt the demon go out through his left ear. Turning to the woman sitting next to him, a total stranger, he said, "I believe Jesus Christ fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes!" Christopher had stumbled onto a vital spiritual principle: If we have opened the door to a demon by saying the wrong thing, we need to cancel the wrong thing by saying the right thing. Peter denied the Lord three times, but after the resurrection Jesus led Peter to unsay his denial by affirming to the Lord three times that he loved Him (John 21:15-17). 3. Tongue A demon that operates in the area of either the mind or the tongue is a lying spirit. It may speak either to a person's mind or through a person's tongue. The authority to "bind or loose," is an important tool in dealing with demons. In Matthew 12:29, speaking about driving demons out of a person, Jesus said, "Or else how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first bind the strong man? And then he will plunder his house." If there is a "gang" of demons, the "strong man" is usually the leader, who controls and dominates the rest. In the process of deliverance it will generally be the first to manifest itself. Further on, in Matthew 18:18, Jesus gave His disciples the authority to "bind" or to "loose" spiritual forces, "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The authority to bind or loose can be very effective in dealing with demons, but its exercise must be safeguarded by the application of important scriptural principles: Be under authority; Two are better than one; Do not minister alone to a member of the opposite sex; Use the cross and the sword of the Spirit. A lying spirit can speak to your mind and may also speak through a person's tongue. For instance, there are people who are compulsive liars. They are not aware of the lying demon within them, and often they do not even know when they are lying. Compulsive liars are people controlled by lying demons. They deceive others and are themselves deceived. They may even pass a lie detector test. Other demons in the area of the tongue are exaggeration, gossip, criticism, and slander. Exaggeration is a demon that particularly targets evangelists - hence the phrase "evang-elastically" speaking. Gossip and criticism are two demons that feel quite at home in church. 4. Sex Some Christians view sex as inherently impure. They are ashamed even to think about it, much less talk about it frankly. Yet this is not a scriptural attitude. God created Adam and Eve sexual beings, then declared that everything He had created was very good - obviously including sex (Genesis 1:31). The sexual urge in human beings is so strong, however, that it is a prime target for Satan. He knows that if he can gain control in this area, he has a powerful tool to influence every other area of behavior. I (Derek Prince) have found that virtually every form of compulsive sexual aberration is the outcome of demonic pressure. This would include masturbation, pornography, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, lesbianism, effeminacy and all sorts of perversions concerning which Paul says, "For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret." (Ephesians 5:12). There are various ways such demons can gain entrance. The moment of conception is a very decisive moment. Children conceived outside the marriage are often born with a spirit of fornication. This pressures them, as they grow up, to commit the same sin. 5. Physical Appetites This is another area open to demons. The two most basic are eating and drinking, which some Christians see as purely natural with no spiritual significance. Yet the New Testament depicts these activities as important elements of our Christian lifestyle. The new believer added to the Church following the day of Pentecost, for example, "ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people" (Acts 2:46-47). There was something about the way these Christians ate and drank that impressed their unconverted neighbors. Would that be true of contemporary Christians? Again in I Corinthians 10:31 Paul says, "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." This raises a very practical question: Is it possible to overeat to the glory of God? This issue confronts Christians of the Western world in particular, where overeating has become a lifestyle. How many would even consider that they might be enslaved by a demon of gluttony? Yet surely this explains why multitudes switch from diet to diet, never achieving their goal of stable, moderate weight. They are as much in bondage to food, as others are to alcohol or nicotine. Furthermore, the spiritual and physical consequences of overeating may be no less harmful than those associated with nicotine or alcohol. Solomon offers a prayer that would be suitable for Christians in bondage to such appetites: "Take us the foxes, the little foxes [the little demons], that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." Song of Solomon 2:15 Unimportant though they may seem, these little fox like demons may spoil the tender fruits of the Spirit that God looks for in our lives. One form of spiritual fruit that inevitably suffers from the little foxes is the fruit of self-control. It cannot coexist with self-indulgence. We need to remember the warning of Jesus in John 10:10, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:" Demons may come through various appetites or lusts, including alcohol, nicotine, or food. But regardless of the door through which they enter, all have the same motivation: to do all the harm they can. Often the unrecognized barrier to receiving deliverance is pride. It can be difficult for churchgoing Christians to call their problem by its right name and to acknowledge that they need to be delivered from a demon. In addition to these lusts of the flesh, there is also the "lust of the eyes (I John 2:16). Specific demons enter through the eye gate. One demon already mentioned, which is projected regularly through the media, is pornography. This word is derived from porne - the Greek word for prostitute. Some men commit fornication through their eyes. Jesus Himself said that this is one way a man can commit adultery: "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matthew 5:28). I have been shocked to discover how powerful the influence of pornography is within the professing Church. There are many other forms of lust, however, that open the door to demons in both men and women. In Titus 3:3 Paul includes himself among those who at one time were "...foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving (enslaved by) divers lusts and pleasures..." How wonderful is the grace of God that has provided a way of deliverance from these demonic snares! Source: They Shall Expel Demons, by Derek Prince, Copyright 1998, Chosen Books. |
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