Are you willing to suffer for an enemy? One time God required me to fast for a person contorted her face with hatred every time I saw her. She was about to go on a missions trip, and a friend of mine commanded me to fast because this woman could not go on a missions trip with a demon on her. She said this kind does not come off but through prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21). So I angrily agreed to fast, knowing that God was calling me to fast. I always obey God, even if I have to force myself.
I braced myself for a horrible day where I had to devote the entire day to praying for this woman. I was surprised to find out that it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. God showed me to pray through praise music. I prayed the whole day, and the woman was released from the demon that had been on her for four years.
Next time I saw her, she had a gentle, Spirit-filled expression on her face, and she said she loved me. It was so opposite to the way she had been treating me before that I knew the demon was off her.
When a believer is acting in a way that they distort the truth to stab you, where they attack you verbally at every turn and attribute wrong motives to everything you do, you know you are dealing with a demon. This is especially true if the facial expression is hateful or contorted with rage. This is not normal for a child of God. A demon is on that person. I suppose they could also be given over to their flesh, so I don’t want to rule that out, but where contention exists, it is almost always a work of the enemy. This is especially true when you are in Christian leadership, which both of us were.
Sadly, after the demon was off her, a few months later, she welcomed the demon back. The demon was so familiar with the lies that were used against me that she took them up again as if she had never reconciled with me. Maybe I should have told her that two of us had fasted for 24 hours to have her released from a demon. Because she had no idea, she invited the demon back. I knew she wouldn’t believe me if I told her a demon was on her, and I didn’t want her to attack me again, especially since the demon was off her. I now regret that I wasn’t more honest with her about her sin because it cost her being under the bondage of the demon again.
You can actually be walking by the Spirit and have a demon attached to your physical body, by the way. This happened to me when two friends prayed over me to release me from a personal issue. I was in bondage, and it was demonic, and I did not KNOW. It wasn’t until I humbled myself with two other believers to have them lay hands and pray over me that this demonic presence peeled off my face, and the shackles were gone and I was set free. See, I had absolutely no way to know that I was in bondage, and it began two years previously when I stepped up to Christian leadership. I had been in bondage for two years without knowing. I praise and magnify His name that I had the guts to humble myself to say something personal to two ladies who stormed the gates of heaven to set me free.
During those two years of bondage in one area of my life, I had mightily walked by the Spirit and accomplished wonderful things for the kingdom of God. So just because a demon is on you doesn’t mean you will always be evil. The most spiritual people on earth will have demons lurking, waiting to see where they can make an inroad to sin to slip them up so that others will also fall into sin. Christian leaders are attacked more than most Christians. But through humility and dependence on other believers in the body of Christ, you can overcome the enemy each time. If other believers are aware of your thoughts, they can correct the lies of the enemy immediately so that the enemy does not get a foothold. This is why I believe it’s so important for believers to be transparent with each other and love each other and believe the best in each other.
Even with the apostle Paul, he was given a thorn in the flesh that was “a messenger from Satan.” (II Corinthians 12:7) A messenger from God is an angel, and a messenger from Satan is a demon. So a demon was allowed to torment Paul to keep him from exalting himself. When he was given revelation from God, he could have easily become prideful. But a demon comes alongside during your times of greatest spiritual breakthrough. Because you are fully open to God, Satan uses that openness to insert his own thoughts, too. Then you go close to the brink of insanity, and you calm yourself before God. You humble yourself and are quiet.
This has happened to me more than once, during times of huge spiritual breakthrough, where I nearly went insane because of a demon. But I humbled myself to God and was calm. It causes you to not talk about how to actually have a breakthrough because you’re embarrassed that you were also influenced by a demon at the same time. This also happened to Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers of all time. God comforted me through some of Spurgeon’s sermons that what had happened to me was normal for a true servant of God. Satan will impede our true spiritual breakthroughs. Just humble yourself and be calm. Then ask God to give you discernment in retrospect. Test the spirits to see if they are from the Lord (I John 4:1). Anything that is said in your mind, you need to test it against Scripture and against what you know about God. For example, if it’s agitation, it’s from the enemy.
If you need more help in differentiating God’s voice from the enemy’s voice or your own voice, print out the free chart and listen to the audio here.
