20100214_jesus-and-demons Mark Driscoll
Now if you’re a Christian, does Satan own your proverbial house, yes or no? no, but can you open yourself up to all kinds of torment and influence by inviting people and things into your life that shouldn’t be there? Yes, yes. We don’t know whether or not this man was a believer, all we know is he had opened all the doors and windows to his house to the point where when jesus shows up, there’s actually a demon connected to this guy. A Christian cannot be demon possessed, Jesus owns them, but they can be demonically influenced by all the openings in their life.
That’s why one of my frequent prayers is when I’m repenting of sin and dealing with God, is: “God close any doors I’ve opened, take back any ground I have given. I command everything and everyone that does not love and serve Jesus away from me and my family. I pray against the enemy and his servants, their works and effects, and I command them away from me and my family. and I ask you, Holy spirit, to come in, to live in me and my home and our life and to have your way with us.” ‘Cause jesus says even if you get rid of the demons and you don’t have the Holy Spirit to take up residence in your proverbial home, you get what? seven more demons. It’s a very serious matter
Ordinary Demonic
These are just ways to open the windows, open the doors, come on in, ruin my life.
Sexual sin: (2Cor 7:5)
- porn, fornication, adultery, bisexuality, bestiality.
Marriage between Christians and non-Christians. (2 Cor. 6:15)
- I’ll put all this on the blog and you can look it up later.
False religion, false teaching, false jesus. (1 Cor 10:14-22, 1 Tim 4:1-2; 2 Cor. 11:1-4)
Bitterness: (Eph 4:17-5:2)
- Just unforgiveness towards someone who’s sinned against you.
Foolishness and drunkenness. (Eph. 5:8-21)
- The Bible says to be self-controlled and alert; not when you’re drunk, it’s impossible.
Idle gossip and busybodying. (1 Tim 5:11-15)
- That’s evil? Yes, it’s demonic, especially in the church.
Lies. (John 8:44)
- saying lies, believing lies, particularly about God and Jesus
Idolatry (1 John 5:18-21)
- which is worshiping anyone or anything other than Jesus
All of those are ways to open doors and open windows.
.Extraordinary Demonic
If it escalates, it goes to what I’ll call the extraordinary demonic.
Torment. (Acts 5:16)
Physical injury (Matt 9:32-33; 12:22-23; Acts 8:4-8)
- Like this man whom Jesus healed and his body was thrown on the ground.
False miracles (Acts 8:9-23; 16:16; 2 Thess. 2:9-10)
- some of you say, “But this person or guru, they’re very powerful.” some of you have seen auras around people and had dreams and visions and seen angels. Much of it, if not all of it, demon, demon, demon, real but deceptive. Real and powerful and deceptively real and powerful.
Accusation, (Revelation 12:10)
- “Satan is the accuser of the children of God that he accuses them day and night.” some of you have negative self-talk. some of you hear voices, “You are a failure, you are a loser, you cannot be forgiven, you are not loved by God. You will never change. You should kill yourself. You, you, you.” It’s always that way. When Jesus is attacked by Satan repeatedly in Luke’s Gospel, Satan says to him, “You, you, you.” some of you think you have negative self-talk, low self-esteem. some of you, if it were a human being following you around saying these things, the diagnosis would be easy. You’re being stalked and tormented. But because they’re invisible, you think you’re crazy. You may not be crazy. You may be opposed, you may be harassed.
Death. (Prov 8:36)
- Ultimately Satan is a murderer, that’s what Jesus says in John 8. He wants you to die, drugs, alcohol, sex, foolishness, reckless behavior, suicide.
Murder/suicide (John 8:44)
- Murder and suicide is always his goal.
False spirits and false spirituality. (1 John 4:1-6)
- One of the great lies that the culture tells us is spiritual is good. That’s exactly what Satan wants you to believe. That’s why Oprah has a whole segment called spirit. All right, you know it’s bad when it’s not Jesus, that’s the big idea. You gotta define who it is we’re talking about. I don’t want you to be spiritual, I want you to love Jesus. I don’t want you to be connected to the spirit world, I want you to be filled with the singular Holy spirit, the same spirit that empowered the life of Jesus. spirituality in all of its forms, radical environmentalism, yoga, incantation, meditation. all of it is demonism. It’s opening doors, Opening windows. It just is. In 1 john 4 says, “Do not believe every spirit, test the spirits to see whether they love God or not.” People don’t discern, they don’t test, they don’t come back to scripture. The result is they open the windows, they open the doors, they invite in their enemies and their life is destroyed or worse still, Satan blesses them. They’re powerful, rich, famous, proud, and then they don’t see any need for God because their life is so good because Satan has done nothing but make them fat and happy for the day of his feast.
So here’s the bottom line. some of you are not Christians, you belong to Satan, you’re going to hell. some of you are sensing it with a life of torment, confusion, and death. some of you, Satan's tactic with you has been to make you fat and happy so you have no urgent sense of need for Jesus. some of you are Christians, you’re not possessed by Satan but through unrepentant habitual sin, stupidity and spirituality, you’ve opened the doors and windows and you’ve invited people and things into your life that you need to repent of, kick out with the authority of Jesus, lock the door, shut the windows, be filled with the Holy Spirit and keep your house clean.