How to Determine if it is a Demonic Attack

Dr. Ray: Hey, and… thank you for tuning in, downloading, subscribing to another episode of Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self. You know, the purpose of this podcast is just to help you. I want to be a blessing to you. I'm a minister of Jesus Christ and God equipped me and called me to bless others; to tell people about the freedom that Jesus offers, the blessing that He offers, the abundant life that He gives us, and how to overcome demonic schemes and just be the best that you can and live in your purpose; find your promised land. That's the purpose of this show. I just want this show to be a blessing to you. Share it with as many people as you can and pray for me as I pray for you. So thanks for listening to another episode of Self Talk. God bless you.

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Dr. Ray: All right folks, here we go. Episode 149. How do you know when you're being attacked demonically? What do you do? How do you discern that? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this show. I thank you for each person listening to me right now. I pray for the Holy Spirit to come to be with me, to speak through me. I pray that our ears would be open, our hearts would be prepared to receive what you have for us today. All in the name, and for the power and the glory of Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for this show. We thank you for each person listening. In Jesus’ name. Amen; amen.

So I've often said - and I hope you understand this - that we live in two realms. There is our natural realm and our spiritual realm, and it's really critical to understand this. Second Corinthians 10:3 says, “Although we walk in the flesh, we do not war in the flesh.” And to me, that scripture says that we are simply living a natural life and we walk and we live in the flesh but we don't war in the flesh. That's what Paul is telling us, is we live a natural life; we have our everyday goings and comings and we do– we just live our life but there's a war going on that we cannot battle naturally. We live in two realms. We live in a natural realm but there is a spiritual realm all around us which is affecting us. 

Now, I want to say something and make this very clear. Sadly, many people in this world believe that there's uh, other kinds of spirits that are, that are good. There is one good Spirit: it's the Holy Spirit; and then there's the other guys. If it's not the Holy Spirit you're dealing with, it's going to be a demonic spirit. And they say, “Oh, well no, it's the spirit of my ancestors, it's the spirit of,” you know, “it's, it's a good witch– wicca spirit, it's the spirit of Mother Nature.” Those are evil spirits. Those are demonic spirits. It's very clear in scripture that there's a dividing line between what is of God and what is not of God. And if it's not of God, it is evil and we need to resist it. What is of God is Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. And so when you dabble in the spirit realm, you have to be careful. There's a lot of spirits in the spirit realm and these spirits can be evil. 

Now I'll say this: there are angels and demons, okay? But the angels give glory to Jesus Christ. There are angels, there's demons, there's the Holy Spirit, but there's no other good spirit. And these people… you know the big– there's a big fascination now on television with ghosts and the paranormal. I want to tell you something. These ghosts to me– not to me and I think scripture backs this up, are demons taking human form. And I gotta be honest, I've seen them and, and I've dealt with them. It's demonic. If it's not of the Holy Spirit and it is supernatural and it is spiritual, it's going to be demonic. That's one of the key things you need to understand. And when you look at scripture and you read the bible, you'll see when God became angry that the– seem– His number one - excuse the expression - pet peeve was anytime His children in the bible became involved with other spirits -He put up with a lot of stuff from the Israelites - but when they started worshiping other gods, He was ready to destroy them. Moses had to intervene at one time to stop Him from doing that.

You know, God is a jealous God and He does not like us fooling around with other spirits. You say, “Well what about astrology and reading our signs? And what about the tarot cards and what about psychics and what about,” you know, “the Transcendental Meditation? What about yoga and getting your spirit enlightened?” It's demonic. All this stuff is demonic. So that's one way you know. If it's not the Holy Spirit glorifying Jesus Christ, and biblical, it is demonic. You say, “Well, Dr. Self, maybe you're being too strict here. Too, too religious here.” No, I'm just telling you the truth. And I've dealt with this stuff and I've, I've experienced this stuff. You don't want to mess around with it. Um, there's so much evil counterfeit out there that's not of God and it is very dangerous. And ultimately, these demonic spirits which will manifest themselves through various ways, you know, through witchcraft and through um, you know, uh, Hinduism and Buddhism and, and all these different ways that, that these evil spirits manifest themselves. They have one plan and that is to hurt you. That is to hurt you. And one of the main things they want to do to you is keep you from your purpose, keep you from finding Jesus, keep you from doing what Jesus called you to do, keep you away from your promised land.

I've said this many times: the primary scheme of the enemy is to stop you from the reason and the purpose you were created. That's why the Apostle Paul said we should not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. He says again, “put on the full armor of God so we can stand fir–” “firm against the schemes of the enemy.” What is a scheme? It's a plan. What's the plan? The plan is to hurt you; is to hurt you. It's to hurt your children, it's to hurt your job, it's to harass you, it's to stop you from doing something that God wants you to do. That's the primary plan. Well, how do you know? How do you know? Well, when something is of God, there is peace with it. There is a sense of peace and fulfillment. There's also– when something is of God there is a sense of love about it. Love and peace and fulfillment are things that Satan does not counterfeit very well.

Now, Satan loves to counterfeit things of God. He does that to discredit God. Almost every spiritual gift you'll ever see or hear about gets counterfeited. Almost every type of preacher gets counterfeited. And these counterfeits serve the purpose to give, again, discredit, and destroy belief. There's a lot of incredible preachers out there and pastors out there but then there's the counterfeits which cause so much damage and so much harm. So many times, sadly, the counterfeits are people who started off on the right track and somehow got into deception and never turned around. 

Let me just kind of share on this real quick. Almost every time - I've been walking this walk a long time - where I see deception enter in, our pastors who, many times is a pastor who becomes well-known, famous, rather powerful, but has no real accountability. They surround themselves with yes men and yes women who do anything they want, you know? No, don't touch God's anointed, and just act like their armor bearers and carry their bible and carry their water and serve them and you know uh, submit to them and everything. But they don't held them accountable. And with no accountability, eventually - and I've seen too many times - with no accountability, almost every time - I should say this - these pastors get into some form of deception. And it's very, very sad and hard to see. 

But in your life, how do you know when things that are happening to you are just unfortunate? Or maybe it is a demonic assignment or demonic attack. To me, it, it's kind of simple. When I start experiencing and I'm feeling continued frustration and I see a pattern that keeps repeating itself - something destructive that keeps repeating itself over and over again - more than likely that is a demonic attack. Now, we all go through life, and there– things just happen. And we– but you can't blame everything on the devil and that's not, that's not smart. You don't want to go around looking for a demon behind every bush, that's not a good thing to do. But not to be aware of demonic activity; it's just, it's silly. It's, it's, it's kind of dumb because what you're doing is you're just going to live in continued frustration and not knowing why it's going on. 

What are the fruits of a demonic attack? Maybe let's, let's approach it this way: The number one fruit of a demonic attack is confusion. Mental confusion. You cannot seem to focus… get your mind straight and there's just confusion. The bible said God is not the author of confusion, so when there's continued confusion, more than likely that is a demonic attack upon your mind. Now, I'm not talking about you're being possessed. Demons are in the spirit realm and they will harass you, they will attack you. They attacked Jesus. They tried to attack Jesus, they will attack us. And so, continued confusion. 

Now, a lot of demonic Spirits try to control us. If, if you've ever been around witchcraft - unfortunately, I have - one of the primary purposes of witchcraft is to cast spells. And a spell is used to control people. Control people against their will. So when… the key word is controlling. So when there is a controlling spirit trying to control you against your will, typically it creates mental confusion. And so when you're getting these continued doses of mental confusion, that can be a demonic attack. Now, in a way - this is going to sound kind of strange - that's good news. Because we can command in the name of Jesus Christ demons to leave and they'll leave. If you know your authority and you have faith in Jesus Christ, you can get these demons out of your life. 

Now, when it's just you and your natural tendencies and your own psychological issues, that's a whole, whole lot, you know, more, more difficult. So one of the things is confusion. Another thing is continued frustration in a certain area. Just a certain area that you cannot seem to break free of. Whatever it is. It's um, something that frustrates you, and no matter how hard you, you've done and no matter what you've done, you just cannot seem to break out this. Well, continued frustration actually, according to Derek Prince, that can be the sign of a curse; but it is demonic activity. And remember, Jesus not only gave us authority over demons, but He redeemed us from the curse of the law, which, a lot of curses– He redeemed us from the curse, gave us the blessings of Abraham. It's really critical to understand that.

So continued confusion, continued frustration in a, in a certain area. Um, I've noticed with my wife and I um, many times we - too many times - we've been attacked. And it's like we, we go at each other. We, we start to argue or have a conflict and our flesh gets in the way and we, we're trying to prove each other wrong and we're, we're not speaking lovingly. We're not being gracious to one another, we're not listening to each other. And that can be a demonic attack. There's a demon for instance that I like to call… well, I don't like to call demons anything, but a demon that is known as Leviathan. Leviathan is known as a twisting spirit. Leviathan they think um, may have been an ancient crocodile. But the way a crocodile destroys its prey is it grabs hold of its prey and it begins to twist. What the leviathan spirit does is he twists your words and thoughts. So when leviathan is operating - and this has happened to my wife and I - what you say gets twisted and misunderstood, so you say ABC, and your wife hears DFG, okay? Or you may say “Wow, it's uh getting cloudy outside,” your wife hears “There's a hurricane coming.” That's not what you said, um… And it's, it's a spirit that, that filters our words and causes our words

to be misunderstood, misconstrued, and misinterpreted. It can cause a lot of conflict, leviathan spirit.

And so, demons love to get in the middle and cause conflict in Godly relationships, especially husbands and wives because God puts men and women together. Men and women, I said. And you– catch that - together. You know, what God has put together let no man separate. So continued conflict and frustration in a relationship with your wife or your husband can be a sign of a demonic attack. Other areas um, you can be… continually to struggle with poverty. You know, no matter what you do you cannot seem to break out of the poverty cycle. You know that, that that can be the sign again, of a, of a scheme. It can be a sign of an, of an attack. What the devil loves to do - or love is probably not a good word to use - commonly does, is he cuts off. He tries to cut off God's flow. Imagine, you know, God is our source. He's the, He owns the earth and the fullness thereof. The Bible says the cattle on a thousand hills, all the gold and silver, everything belongs to Him. So imagine this big water faucet up in up in heaven and out of this faucet is coming God's flow for you; and in that flow is your provision, your healing, your anointing, your blessings. What demons like to do is somehow try to cut off that flow; interfere with that flow from God to you. And that interference can be a demonic attack.

Now, these are just typical, you know, typical attacks. Obviously, demons can attack our health. They can attack us um, you know, our bodies and our spirits, um, ourselves. They can attack us that way. One thing I've noticed - and I don't think many people talk about but I think it's very evident - demons attack, in a way, prophetically. And what I mean by that is um, I've seen teachers continually get attacked in their mind; praise and worship leaders get attacked in their voice; pastors who are called to stand firm for the Lord get attacked in their, their back or maybe their legs or feet. It's interesting, it is interesting to see how these attacks happen. Another big attack upon church leaders is the spirit of illegitimacy. You've heard me talk about that. This, this spirit wants you to question your value. Are you really? It's… uh, the spirit attacks with a question mark. Are you really anointed? Are you really called? Are you sure you're saved? Are you sure you're a good teacher? Are you sure you're a pastor? Are you sure you're a good wife? Are you sure you're a good husband? The spirit wants to illegitimize you. All these are demonic attacks. 

The Lord gives us… the Holy Spirit means peace, and fulfillment, and satisfaction in love, okay? And you, you, you know, Galatians talks about the fruit of the Spirit. That's, that's a fruit developing within you. But when it's of God, it is peaceable and it is, it is loving and it is more exceedingly, as the book of Ephesians says, “exceedingly, abundantly more than you could ever think or ask for.” This is from God. When it's not these things, it's probably demonic. You can pray. Say, “God, give me the gift of discernment.” Discernment is discerning of spirits. It's a gift where you can discern what spirit is operating. You know, that is critical but when you think you have discerned a demonic attack, that's when you take authority. You take authority. 

And you know, recently I've heard some preachers, teachers, whatever they call themselves, on social media claiming uh, there's no such thing as spiritual warfare. Um, you know, there's no such thing as casting out demons. You know, that's Mark 16, that was not in the original text. Let me tell you something. Part of the gospel is deliverance. Part of our job is to cast out demons, okay? He– Jesus gave His, H– His followers in, in Luke, the power to cast out demons, and in Mark, the power to cast out demons. And then in John 14:12, “those that believe in Me will do the same works that I do; and even greater works.” Jesus said this. So yeah, spiritual warfare is part of the bible. The Apostle Paul made it very clear that we are doing spiritual warfare. In, in Ephesians chapter 6, “put on the full armor of God,” talked about spiritual warfare. 

So you discern that something is going on in your life, is attacking you, and it's demonic. What do you do? Well, now you can pray and you can petition God. And you know, praying and petitioning God is always a good thing but in this case, petitioning God to do something He's commanded you to do may not work. Now, a petition is when, “Lord, I'm asking you to do something for me.” But then when you obey God, you take the authority that Jesus Christ has given you. “These signs will follow those that believe.” And using the authority under His anointing, you know, submit to God. That means we pray, we, we submit to God. But then we take– do what He told us to do. Resist the devil, cast out demons. In other words, petitioning God is asking God to do it. But obedience can be doing what God's already told you to do, which is cast out devils. Do what Jesus did. He cast out demons. This is exactly what He did. So to me, it goes something like this: I've been continually frustrated in one certain area. I begin to pray - and there's nothing wrong with praying and talking to God. And many times, you pray, you talk to God, you, you get instructions. King David is why– he was so successful in war because he was continually getting instructions on how to fight his battles. So pray. Submit yourself to God. Pray. Talk to God. But then at some point, you have to take authority and go, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you, Satan and your demons, to get out of here. Leave my finances alone; leave my job alone; get out of my job, get out of my marriage. In Jesus’ name, get away from my home. In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to go. In the name and the power and authority of Jesus Christ, I've submitted to God. I resist you. You will flee. Get out of my life, get away from my health, get away from my children, get away from my family in the name of Jesus Christ. Get away from my body, get, get away from my life, get away, get out of here, in Jesus' name. Get out in the name of Jesus Christ. Your assignment is broken, your scheme is destroyed. I command you to go.”

And as you're praying and you're– or taking this action, maybe you discern a specific type of demon, okay? Maybe it's the spirit of illegitimacy. “I rebuke you, spirit of illegitimacy.” Maybe you discern a spirit of witchcraft attacking you. “I rebuke the spirit of witchcraft.” Maybe you discern a spirit of infirmity. You're continually sick. “I rebuke the spirit of infirmity.” You get the idea. And when you speak, speak with authority. Get a little angry, it's okay. Years ago, the Lord gave me a, a picture. And um, you know, I don't know if you've ever been walking and had a dog come run at you to, to bite you. If you act afraid and don't resist that dog, he's going to bite your ankle. But if you stop, look at that dog, say, “Get out of here! Get out of here!” and you face him, most of the time those dogs are going to flee and they're going to run, okay? And some– that is– it is with demons. And you know, we don't– again, we want– don't want to give glory to demons. We don't want to give any more attention to demons. We just want to deal with them, get them out of our life, so we can go on about God's business and live the life He's called us to live. Live that life, that life abundantly that Jesus promised us to live.

Paul said we battle not against flesh and blood. He made it clear that we have a fight to fight. But the good news is you have the authority of Jesus; Jesus Christ. And demons will submit to the authority of Jesus Christ when you take it. That's the good news. And so I hope this has been a blessing to you and um, you know, pray. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Start commanding these forces out, out of your life, out of your home, away from your job, your family, your children. Now listen, if you're doing something that's opening up a door, and you know what I'm talking about, something that's inviting the demons into your life, well stop it. Stop it. Repent. Ask forgiveness for that, okay? 

I hope this show has been a blessing to you. I'm, I'm. You know, I record these shows, I try to picture everybody who's listening. Um, give me some feedback. I really would appreciate some feedback, uh, some responses. Don't forget my email. If you have a question or a show topic idea, drrayself@gmail.com. Again, I have now.. we have two websites for the podcast. Uh, one on Buzzsprout and the other on Podpage. The easiest way is icmcollege.org/selfttalk. icmcollege.org/selfttalk. There, you can subscribe and, and write reviews. Ask questions. We got a store, all kinds of cool stuff there. Anyway, God bless you. Thank you for listening. And Lord, I pray for– that you would bless each person that's heard this show. Give them the power, the anointing, the boldness, and the courage, and - that the name of Jesus provides - that we can resist the devil and watch him flee. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.

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Well, I hope this show has been a blessing to you. How to Determine if it's a Demonic Attack. You know, some of it is actually common sense. So anyway, I pray this show has been a blessing. I'd love to– I'd love to hear from you, hear your comments about the show, and any testimonies that you would have; we appreciate that very much. If the Lord leads you - and I don't mean that to be like a cliche - but honestly, if you can help us to continue the show, this show costs money to do; and uh, if you could partner with me, I'm looking for some partners. It would help. Go to icmcollege.org/donate. There's a link in the show description. Um, my Gmail, my email account, drrayself@gmail.com. 

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