The ministry of Jesus started when He was about 30 years old. The kickoff point was when He was baptized by John the Baptist and immediately filled with the Holy Spirit.
Then the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for forty days. Why? Because the only way to build endurance in your faith is for your faith to be tested.
James explains:
James 1:2-4 NLT - Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
Decide now to stop griping about your troubles. And don’t just stop griping, but choose to be joyful about your troubles.
When you do, your troubles no longer bring you down, but they will help you grow all the way to completion, where you need nothing. That’s what Jesus did for forty days.
Most people spend decades griping about their troubles when they could have just used them to become fully developed in the things of God in as little as forty days.
After this time of testing, Jesus returned to Galilee, completely filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. He was teaching almost daily in synagogues and was praised by everyone.
Everyone spoke well of Him and was amazed by His teaching until His teaching started to be fulfilled before their very eyes. Then they tried to kill Him by running Him off a cliff.
So the first spiritual gift Jesus operated was the teaching gift. Do you know what the next one was? Not healing. Not turning water into wine. But casting out demons. Let’s read about it.
Luke 4:33-36 NLT - Once when he was in the synagogue, a man possessed by a demon—an evil spirit—cried out, shouting, “Go away! Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” But Jesus reprimanded him. “Be quiet! Come out of the man,” he ordered. At that, the demon threw the man to the floor as the crowd watched; then it came out of him without hurting him further. Amazed, the people exclaimed, “What authority and power this man’s words possess! Even evil spirits obey him, and they flee at his command!” The news about Jesus spread through every village in the entire region.
The New Living Translation uses the word “possess”. It said, “A man possessed by a demon.” And that’s how most of us would think about a situation like this. We would call them possessed.
But let’s take a look at what the New Kings James Version says:
Luke 4:33 NKJV - Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon.
So, this got me curious. What does this word translated to “had” in the NKJV and “possess” in NLT actually mean?
In the original Greek language, the word is “echo,” and it means:
It’s when you are so close to something that you are an echo of that thing. You say what it says. You do what it does.
Notice it said nothing about having possession of your spirit. Yet that is how most of us think about demonic issues. We think it is a full-on possession, spirit, soul, and body.
It’s when you are so close to something that you are an echo of that thing.
You say what it says. You do what it does.
Notice it said nothing about having possession of your spirit. Yet that is how most of us think about demonic issues. We think it is a full-on possession, spirit, soul, and body.
You are giving the devil too much credit. I’ve yet to find where the Bible says a demon can possess your spirit.
Your body? Yes. Your mind? Yes. And digging into the Greek word “echo” gives us insight into how this happens.
It all starts when someone begins to hold on to the things of the devil. They start to wear them like clothing.
We’re talking about any kind of sin that you embrace. You are holding on to what belongs to the devil. And as you continue to wear these things, the devil takes possession of your mind.
Now you can’t get your mind off of it. You think about it all the time. Your thoughts drive you deeper and deeper into darkness.
A good example of this would be pornography. The more you keep it around, the more of a stronghold it becomes. It possesses your mind to where you go to great depths to watch more.
Then you become joined together with this thing, much like a marriage. No longer can you just casually walk away from it.
Now you have to get a full-on divorce.
That’s why the demon threw the man on the ground on its way out. Divorces are never pretty.
If you read my book, Jesus Ain’t Woke, you know that I was delivered from homosexuality. This progression matches exactly what I went through.
It started with me picking it up and putting it back down. Picking it up again and putting it back down. Then I picked it up and put it on. It didn’t take long before it possessed my mind.
It consumed my thoughts, and before I knew it, I became closely joined together with this unclean spirit. I had a demon. But only because I opened the door and allowed it in.
This will throw you for a loop. I grew up in church. My grandpa was a pastor. My dad was a church leader. We were in church every Sunday and every Wednesday.
I loved God. I loved the church. I loved Jesus. I was even leading a youth worship band. God’s love and presence would manifest in the midst of these worship services.
Yet, I was joined together with an unclean spirit. I had a demon.
Did I feel conflicted inside? Beyond what you could even imagine unless you’ve been there. I should have been diagnosed as bipolar because I was one person at church and another at school.
Almost daily, I would be thrilled by the unclean spirit and then be crying out for forgiveness from God that night. I was in a constant state of yoyo torment. Up and down and up and down.
No one knew I was being tormented. When I was a church, I was all in. When I was with the wrong crowd, I was all in. Both sides of my life thought I was good. But I wasn’t.
I thought it was me. I was fighting myself. I was asking God for forgiveness. I was making promises that I would never do it again. But nothing was working.
Then people were telling me, “Why are you fighting this? It’s how you were born. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
I was tempted to take this on as my identity. The devil was working hard to snuff out the part of me that was pursuing God so that I fully identified with the demon that was tormenting me.
This man we were reading about that had an unclean spirit, he came to church that day. He was just sitting there quietly, listening to Jesus teach.
We don’t know for sure, but I bet he went to look for a way out of his torment that day. He heard about the amazing teaching of Jesus and probably thought, “He has the answer.”
The teaching of Jesus was so agitating to the demon that it cried out. It couldn’t hide any longer. It knew its time was limited.
So with a simple command, Jesus delivered this man from his torment. He made the demon leave but let the man stay.
These days, when we have a manifestation like this at church, we leave the demon in the person and ask the person to leave.
Let me remind you of what Jesus actually told us to do regarding this:
Mark 16:17 NKJV - And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name, they will cast out demons…
The first sign Jesus mentions of believers is that they will cast out demons. It goes on to give others, like speaking in tongues and healing, but let’s focus on this one today.
The first on the list is casting out demons. If it's the first on the list, that means it will be a frequent occurrence. So, what’s going on?
I’ve been in church for 34 years. I was a worship leader for 10 years. I’ve been a lead pastor for almost 5 years. And I’ve never seen a demon cast out.
I’ve witnessed numerous healings, speaking in tongues, words of knowledge, prophecy, and financial miracles. But I’ve never seen a demon cast out.
I’ve heard about it happening overseas. My dad tells stories of it happening in the Philippines. But I don’t hear about it happening in our local churches.
Does that mean there are no demons around here? Or have we just become so used to them that we just let them hang around?
All you have to do is look at the state of our nation to know that demons are definitely having a heyday in America. So, it must be the latter. We have become desensitized to unclean spirits.
They do their best to fly under the radar. Demons do not want to be noticed. But why have we been allowing them to do so?
Why don’t we do what Jesus did and agitate them so much that they must manifest? This is an important part of deliverance because if we don’t know it’s there, how can we cast it out?
Consider a boss who didn’t know if he had employees or not. So he shouted, “If you are there, I command you to get to work.”
What would the employees think at this point? “He doesn’t even know we are here!” And then they would continue having their little party instead of doing what the boss said.
It was the bold teaching of Jesus that agitated that demon so much that it came out of hiding and manifested itself. So that’s the first step. Agitate the demons with the unhindered Word of God.
But you can’t just stop there. Once the demon makes itself known, you have to cast it out.
Most Christians would just get scared at this point as if the demon has more power than they do.
Most church leaders would try to “protect the church’s reputation” by removing the person.
Jesus told us to do neither of those. He didn’t say to run and hide. He didn’t say to keep things nice and orderly. He said to cast out demons. It should be happening on the regular.
So why are we letting demons hang around? Because we’ve been duped. Casting out demons is too messy. It doesn’t fit into our perfect performance church services.
On top of it all, we’ve been taught that a Christian cannot have a demon. So people are going to church every Sunday while living in a constant state of torment.
We tell them to read the Bible more. We tell them to go see the doctor and get meds. We tell them to go through a 12-week program.
Can I tell you something? If a demon is causing the torment, the only way to get rid of it is to cast it out. Medicine won’t work. Prayer won’t work. Memorizing scripture won’t work.
We must stop trying to come up with our own solutions and do what Jesus told us to do: cast out demons!
Am I saying that everything is a demon? No. But we can’t keep living like nothing is a demon.
Just look at the ministry of Jesus. One of the first things He did was cast out a demon. Then He kept at it, casting out demons everywhere He went.
Then He had His disciples cast out demons.
This tells me that there are demons to be cast out. And they are not just tormenting non-believers. They are tormenting people right here within the church.
Even as a born-again believer, you can pick up sin and put it back down. You can pick it up and put it on. You can keep it around so that it consumes your mind and then joins together with you.
That was me. I was joined together with that unclean spirit of homosexuality. Until one day, I had enough.
I was in my bedroom seeking God when I dropped to my knees and said, “God, I don’t just want your forgiveness. I want freedom. Take this thing from me so I can live for you.”
At that moment, I sensed something leave my body. And in its place, I was overwhelmed with the love of God. I was weeping uncontrollably because I knew I was finally free.
Now let’s head to Luke 6, where we gain more insight into why demons torment people.
Luke 6:17-19 - When they came down from the mountain, the disciples stood with Jesus on a large, level area, surrounded by many of his followers and by the crowds. There were people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from as far north as the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those troubled by evil spirits were healed. Everyone tried to touch him, because healing power went out from him, and he healed everyone.
In Luke 4, Jesus delivered a man who HAD a demon. This scripture says "He delivered those TROUBLED by demons." Let’s dig into the word translated to troubled so we can understand the difference.
Wow. That last definition brings a lot of clarity. Some people with demons were molested by demons at a young age or at a weak point. It has nothing to do with the choices they made.
And sometimes, the devil sends a mob of demons against you, probably because you are about to destroy his kingdom and he is trying to stop you.
So, now we know people can have demons because they opened the door themselves by engaging with sin or demonic things. Others have demons because their parents didn’t protect them or the devil is out to stop them.
Either way, in order to receive deliverance from demonic oppression, you must first recognize you need it. That demon has to come out of hiding so it can be cast out.
You have to decide to cut ties with that unclean spirit so it can be cast out.
