Christians and Demons

Hey, welcome to my show. This is actually episode 160, can you believe it? 160 episodes of Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. This is going to be an interesting show, stay tuned, I'm going to talk about Christians and demons. it's a, it's a tough subject, it's a confusing subject, but it is something that we all need to know and understand because it affects your life every day, every single day. So be sure and subscribe to the show. Share… go to the uh, website for our show, icmcollege.org/selftalk. icmcollege.org/selftalk. On the website, you can see every episode we've ever done and you can also subscribe, get on our email list, ask us questions, see our products, a lot of cool stuff you can do, and be sure and share this with other people. Let's see if we can increase the downloads and get this message out. Again, thank you for listening to today's episode of Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self, that would be me.

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Okay, here we go. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this time together. I thank you for anyone who's listening to my voice, to this show. I pray, Father, that your Holy Spirit would talk through me and to us. Open up our heart to hear what you have to say. In the name of Jesus Christ, I thank you, Father. I praise you, Lord, in Jesus’ name. 

Christians and demons. I don't know why it's so confusing and so complicated. There's a lot of questions people ask about this, you know, can a Christian have a demon? A good pastor friend of mine says, “Well, can a demon have a Christian?” You know, let me just say this. I'm just going to get right to it here. When you look at the ministry of Jesus Christ, part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and part of his ministry as a model for us was casting out demons. Multiple times we see Jesus casting out demons. Then you'll see in Mark chapter 16, the sign of a believer is, and it says in Mark 16, verse 17, “These signs shall accompany those who have believed.” Believers, you know, that's you and me. “In my name they will cast out demons; and they will speak with new tongues.” So there we have a commandment that as believers, we're going to cast out demons. So demons must still be around, okay, or, or why would he tell us to do that? As a matter of fact, you know they're around because you've experienced them. You– if you haven't experienced them, you actually have experienced them just not realizing that's what is happening to you. 

In 1 Corinthians 12, we have the, the gifts of the Holy Spirit known as the manifestation gifts, and one of those gifts is called the discerning of spirits. Well, why would we need to discern spirits? That's because there's demons out there and there's spirit– there's the spirits out there. There's the Holy Spirit and there's the other guys. I like to make it really simple. There's the Holy Spirit of God and there are the other guys and they're not good. It's so, so, so dangerous. Um, you see in the world today so many people say, “Well, I'm very spiritual,” you know, “and I, I just have a spiritual gift in me,” and I'm going, what spirit is it? It's pretty, it's pretty clear. There, there, there's one Holy Spirit, he's the spirit of God, and then there's the other guys and they are not good, they're not good. As a matter of fact, God warns us about this repeatedly in scripture, about other spirits. And there's a spirit– he talks about the spirits of divination and sorcery, uh, in scripture very, very, very clearly; and there's a lot of other demons. Demons are mentioned. Satan and his demons are mentioned clearly in… in scripture. God is a jealous God. “You shall have no other gods before me.” So when you get involved with other spirits, thinking “Well, this is a good thing. I'm being spiritual,” my question is what spirit are you being spiritual with? And so many times in our modern society with all the cultic stuff, the new age stuff there. These spirits are, are, are demons and people, people play with them and mess with them and they shouldn't be doing it. Um, it's evil and it is… it angers God. We– God is a jealous God and folks, we live in a natural world and we live in a spiritual world simultaneously. 

So the topic today is, you know, Christians and demons and I just want to… I just want to say this. I want to get on a soap box because I have so many Christian friends that get involved with, you know, mystical stuff. And if it's mystical or spiritual and it's not about Jesus, who, who is -  the Holy Spirit always glorifies Jesus - it's going to be demonic. And one of the big ones is Yoga. Yes, I said it, yoga. “Well, it's just a great exercise.” Yeah, it's a good exercise, but yoga means union with god. Yoga is a Hindu… a form of Hindu spiritualism, and the purpose of yoga is to enlighten you and release this spirit in the base of your spine - I think it's called kundali - and hopefully, through these exercises, this spirit moves into your mind and you become an enlightened person. The poses that you do, the postures and poses that you do in yoga are worship poses to Hindu gods, and the Hindu gods are all demons. They're all demons. And yoga means union with god. It comes from Hinduism. You say, “Well, I'm just doing it as an exercise.” Well, good. I'm glad you're exercising and that's a good thing, but find another exercise. Don't do something that's uh, going to offend your savior. 

So Christians and demons. This is… let me just get to the chase here. We get attacked. Folks, I've been attacked and so have you. Demons will attack you. Satan attacked Jesus in the desert. He, he attacked him directly in the desert, he tempted him multiple times in the desert. Now here's the Son of God, God himself, incarnate, and here Satan is attacking him. You think he will not attack you? Absolutely he will attack you. Absolutely.

So the point is with the gift of discernment, we can discern if something happening to us, when strange things start happening to us we can use the gift of discernment to determine what spirit it is. And the main thing the gift of discernment does is determine if a spirit is the Holy Spirit or a demon spirit. That's what the gift of discernment does. I tell my students all the time and say, remember, the gift of discernment has nothing to do with suspicion of people. And sadly… it's sad that some people use their, their gift to uh, to gossip about people, to discern things about people. It's called the discerning of spirits, the discerning of spirits. I've never seen a Christian possessed by a demon where they had zero control. I have not. I have seen many times Christians harassed by demons, and sometimes the demons seem to get inside of them. Um, now they don't control them but the spirit just gets inside of them. 

In my experience, I– I've witnessed demons Inside of Christians and you pray, and you take authority over them, you cast them out, and they come out. And they clearly come out, and there's a change in the person. But I’ve also observed and witnessed and experienced demons attacking from the outside. I call this, this uh, spirit of oppression or spirits of harassment. It's kind of like when everything just seeps— keeps going wrong and you can't figure it out and it's like you're just being harassed. And people used– years ago they used to call it Murphy's Law - if it can go wrong, it will go wrong. Well, when things are going wrong, and it's just weird and it's not normal and things keep happening and repeating themselves. Typically that is a demonic attack and in a way, that's good news. It's good news because demons can be defeated by the blood and the authority and the power of Jesus Christ. You can cast them out, tell them to go, break their assignment, and get rid of them. But if you ignore them, don't know what they're doing, they will continue to operate against you and you will continually get worse in whatever they're trying to do to you. 

Now what the demons do is, is they like to come in on top of wounds. Demons are like flies. You know how flies are attract– attracted to, to wounds? If you've ever lived out in the country– I remember as a kid playing, and you get a, you know, an open sore, and these flies would be attracted to it. It's, it's gross but demons are attracted to weak areas. If you– when you go into a nursing home… One of the saddest experiences I've ever had in my life is ministering in nursing homes and, and my mother was in a nursing home for a short period of time. And in the nursing home, you have so many people there who are not strong. They're weak and their spirits are not strong and you can sense the demonic presence in nursing homes. You can go in, and it is creepy. The demonic presence is so strong because demons don't attack strong areas. They attack weak areas, and of course, the people in the nursing homes are at the end of life and they're not as strong as they would normally be. Um, also, if you have a past wound, a demon will attack that if you have a, a bad tendency or an area you're continually tempted in. Demons will attack that. And so in my experience, the most common thing is not a Christian having a demon. I think we need to drop that terminology. But Christians being attacked by demons is common as a common cold. It happens, it happens. If you think it hasn't happened, you're just going through a lot of weird stuff in your life and blaming it on everything else. 

But what's happening, it's just demonic. I've seen demons attack my marriage where my, my beautiful wife and I Christ– Christie my wife… all of a sudden there's like a… strife, strife in the house. And the strife just… it's just there’s tension and uh, strife between us. And it's, it's, it's kind of strange, it seems to be coming out of nowhere and we stop, we pray, we renounce it, and until the peace of God comes back in the house. And so I know it's a demonic attack. There's been times when we’ve been attacked by a spirit of confusion. It's like I'm not understanding anything she's saying, she's not understanding anything I'm, saying, and again, it's causing tension. And we look at each other and say, “I think we're being harassed by a demon.” And we stop, we pray, we cast it out, and the peace comes back and we understand each other perfectly. 

Now, you can't blame everything on demons, ‘cause so much of it is flesh. So much of it is flesh and it's not, it's not… it's not demons. It's… sometimes it is just you. It is just you. And I wish I could say everything was demonic because then we could just cast it out and everything will be fine, but sometimes it's just us, it's just us misbehaving and us suffering the consequence of our behavior and blaming it on a demon. However, the good news is that these harassing attacks we have been given authority over, that, that's why Jesus said “These signs will follow those that believe, they will cast out demons.” Jesus knew that we would need to do that. And I could tell you a story after story of story of demonic attack upon my life. I've seen attacks on my finances where all of a sudden, it's like nothing is working financially. It's like there was a financial flow in my life and all of a sudden, it was like the faucet got cut off and nothing is flowing again. Nothing is flowing. And I realize that something's not right here. And you sense it, that something's not right. And so I pray and I take authority over these harassing demons. I rebuke them and all of a sudden, the finances start getting restored again. 

Uh, demons will attack relationships, they will attack your emotions, they will attack your health, they are typically magnifiers. And what I mean by that is they come in on weak areas and they just make things worse. Um, you have a, a tendency to be depressed, they'll make you more depressed. You have a tendency to be overreactive, they'll make you react even more. You have a tendency to get hurt very easily, they'll make sure you get hurt even more, okay? You understand what I'm saying? You have a tendency to be, to be jealous or compare yourselves to other people. Well, they'll come in on top of that and they will magnify that. They're magnifiers. You know, they're not, they're not that creative. They look for opportunity to make your life worse. And the main thing that they are trying to do and I–' I've preached this so many times and taught this so many times, the main thing, the reason they're after you, is not just because you're Christian, it's because you are Christian with a mission from God, a purpose from God, a created purpose from God, and they want to make sure you never do it and you never work for God, you never minister for God, you never complete your assignment from God; that's what they're after. Demons do not attack God directly, they attack God's plans working through God's people. And so being aware of his schemes are important, and I've talked about this on several podcasts. 

The Apostle Paul said we should not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. Now again, here he is, he's talking to Christians, okay? This was written in Corinthians, we should not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. And then of course, uh, in Ephesians he says put on the armor of God so we can stand firm against the schemes of the enemy. So the enemy schemes against Christians that's why… Can Christians have demons? Maybe… I don't… No Christian owns a demon, but they are attacked by demons and we are harassed and attacked by demons and if you're not aware of it, you're probably living a life with a lot more frustration than you need to, okay? So Paul said do not be ignorant. Be aware of Satan's schemes in your life. When you are continually frustrated in a particular area, more than likely it is a demonic scheme in your life. When things keep just not… just– you're being harassed. It's just like you can tell– you've had those days where it just seems like nothing is working. It's just– you're being harassed. 

I have a– a dear pastor friend of mine and he was talking about how everything… he's got a little farm, and everything on his farm keeps breaking and things keep happening. Uh… you know… it just– the other day is his, his barn caught on fire and his tractor quit working and he goes on and on and on and on and on… this– and I said this sounds like harassment. There's too many things happening. What's going on here? So I said, you know, we need to pray over this property and rebuke every demonic scheme against the property, against your property. Of course, then again, it's also, um, it, it takes his attention off God's purpose for him. Now, that happens to a lot of people where things just go wrong for no reason and they shouldn't go wrong for no reason. And what's really sinister about it is Satan knows your weaknesses, he knows your vulnerable places, and that's where he attacks. That's where the demons come in, the places you're most vulnerable. And all of us have those soft places, all of us have those wounded areas. If you, you… we all have them. Nobody's perfect. We all have these little wounded areas and when you get hit in that one particular area, it really hurts more than any other thing. That's why sometimes men and women… we overreact. And that's where he attacks. 

But if we're not ignorant of Satan's schemes and we put on the fall– full armor of God to stand firm against the schemes of the enemy. We need to just be aware. And what– what the good news is… when we become aware of the attack, we can rebuke it, renounce it, and cast it out, and make it stop. Demons will submit to the authority of Jesus Christ. When you know you have that authority and you know you have that power of the Holy Spirit within you and you know that you know and you speak with authority and you speak with faith, these attacks will stop. 

Can a Christian have a demon? Well, no, they don't own a demon. Nobody owns a demon. Demons will attack Christians and sometimes they, they seem to get even inside their, their spirit, okay? You know, attack and so, they try to get inside their spirit. But, no. They're not– Christians are not possessed by demons. You have the Holy Spirit in you and they don't own demons. But to say demons don't attack Christians is ridiculous. They do and you know they do because you've experienced it. So take your authority, that's the good news. You have power over this. You do not have to receive this, you do not have to receive their attacks, you don't have to be attacked any longer. You, through the power that Jesus has given you, can make it stop. Amen. Amen.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for everyone listening to this show. I thank you, Father, that you have given us authority like you said in your word, that you have given us authority over snakes and scorpions and all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall harm us. Father, you said, Father, these signs will follow those that believe, that we will cast out demons. So Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I thank you for a fresh anointing and a fresh revelation, Father, and for everyone listening to me right now that is being harassed by demons. I ask you to open up their, their spirit and their mind by the Holy Spirit, not any other spirit. To know what the attack is and to stand against it and rebuke it and renounce it by the blood and the power and the authority of Jesus Christ. I praise you, Father. We thank you, Father. We give you glory, Father. In Jesus’ name. Amen and amen. Thank you.

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Well folks, we did it. We finished episode 160. I really appreciate you listening to Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self, that'd be me. Thank you. Um, I hope this episode meant something to you. I really just want you to know, don't be freaked out by demons. Demons can be cast out, they can be stopped, you have a– authority over demons. That's the good news. It's like uh, being attacked by a dog. Um, you know, a little dog. You have authority over that dog. You can make that dog go away and that's what you can do with demons. This show has been sponsored by the International College of Ministry. If you can go to– please go to icmcollege.org, get a free evaluation. You want to know what it would take to get a college degree, uh, for free? And that degree is not free, but your evaluation is. Do the free evaluation. Also, we have samples. Try some courses. Or you say, “You know what? I don't, don't want a degree but I really would like to take a particular course.” If you go to the website, you can browse our catalog. You see a course that you want to take, just email me at drrayself@gmail.com. D - R - R - A - Y - S - E - L - F at gmail.com, and for $35 I'll send the course to you. Now, that is a college course. You're looking at a $300 course or more for $35 bucks, all right? And also it does help our scholarship fund, helps us also do this show. Be sure and check out the website again for the podcast. That's icmcollege.org, uh, /merch. No, that's… excuse me, icmcollege.org/selftalk. icmcollege.org/merch is our store, we have all kinds of cool stuff. Uh, I would appreciate you if you look at my book, Hear His Voice, be His Voice. That's a book about hearing God's voice, moving prophetically, or my other book, Redeeming Your Past and Finding Your Promised Land. I'm very close to finishing my third book, it's called The Call. Anyway, thank you for listening to today's show. You're a blessing. Don't forget to subscribe and share. God bless you, this is Dr. Ray Self.