Dear child of God, demons are still the enemies of the Kingdom of God because they aim at weakening it. But, unfortunately, some believers have put them in the superstitious category of ghosts, dragons, fairies and elves. Yet, they are so real in modern life.
Please understand that, Satan’s sinister strategy is to make believers silent about demons; yes, to exclude them from our reckonings because that is how they thrive – i.e. ruling from beneath the surface.
You know, demons are by nature undercover personalities who do not like light or exposure i.e. to come to the fore. They like to remain undercover, in the background, and to work silently with nobody bothering them.
How ‘Satan’ operates
There are two types of work of Satan – the overt ones and the covert ones. The overt or ‘obvious’ ones are in the minority and are the ones that can clearly be seen as his works, like full-blown madness.
The covert or ‘hidden’ ones are in the majority, yet are difficult to point to as Satan’s work, like most deceptions.
The secret of Satan’s Kingdom
Beloved, demons like to influence, control decisions, beliefs, behaviour etc from a covert or difficult-to-detect position. They are the secret of Satan’s Kingdom.
You know, Satan himself hardly confronts mankind.
(Yes, the Bible only records about two clear instances where Satan directly spoke to man. One was to our first parents in the Garden of Eden and the other to the Lord Jesus in the wilderness – Gen. 3: 1ff; Matt. 4:3ff.)
So you see that in the main, the devil is fond of using demons to perpetuate his rule on earth in a subliminal ‘unseen’ manner. They like to hide so much so that sometimes, when they are detected and uncovered, they get uncomfortable and leave by themselves.
Some believers think that if you do not bother demons and talk about them, they would not bother you. This is not true at all. Demons hide so deep and so well that sometimes, it takes only the gifts of the word of knowledge and discerning of spirits to force them to the open.
And from their hidden positions they influence people’s minds, bodies, emotions, speech, attitude, philosophy, doctrine, behaviour etc away from the rule of God.
You know the Kingdom of God, like yeast in dough comes subliminally – Matt. 13:33. And so Satan, being an imitator, brings about his kingdom subliminally also, through undercover demons.
The Lord Jesus and demons
Dear child of God, demons are enemies of the Kingdom of God. This is because whereas the Kingdom message is to restore rule over yourself and the earth to you, demons are ruling spirits who prevent you from having full control over areas of your life that they may invade.
Therefore, Jesus had to really tackle them in bringing the Kingdom of God back to mankind. Yes, He had to deal with those competing with us for control over our personalities and some areas of our lives. Yes, there is nobody who expelled demons in the Bible more than our Lord Jesus Christ, although there were Jewish exorcists who did so, to make the activity ordinary – Lk. 11:19.
The strategy of Jesus
Beloved, expelling demons was a major strategy of Jesus in His bid to ‘Kingdomize’ the earth as follows:
1. Expelling demons launched our dearest Lord Jesus into His public ministry. He was first and foremost known as the One who had unique authority over demons – Mk. 1:21-28
2. Expelling demons was a normal routine part of demonstrating Mk. 1:15, that “the kingdom was at hand”– Mk.1:39.
Understand that, the people that Jesus cast out devils from were respectable-religious-practicing Jews who were in the synagogue, not in shrines, discotheques, nightclubs and casinos.
These Jews were observers of the Laws of Moses. So they were living better than the majority of people in our modern societies now. Yet, they were demon-possessed and or
demons-influenced.
Now, in our day and age, some of the dysfunctional traits and difficulties that psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mind science practitioners are confronted with are demonically influenced.
3. Expelling demons was a personal priority of our Jesus; and it remained so in sending out the twelve apostles, seventy disciples and now all believers – Lk. 13:32; Matt. 10:1; Lk. 10:17; Mk. 16:17.
