On demons

In talking of demons, the fallen angels who rose up against Almighty God, it is too easy to be seen to admire them, as John Milton's Paradise Lost does. let's make something utterly clear, and from my own experiences, there is absolutely and utterly nothing to be admired about demons. They stink, they are deformed, they are utterly terrified of one small saint of God. The entire coterie of satan flees before a single small bent-over saintly Mother Theresa. She had more power in her tired old body until the moment she was taken home, than the entire fallen kingdom of hell.

I speak from experience, not from bookish theology. Demons run from saints and fear us. But - and this is an important if - only if we are standing in God's power and washed pure in the blood of the Lamb, The LORD Jesus Christ.

The first thing to note is they run from us and hide from us. I was walking past a shop in Dundee and my flesh rose in a flame of righteous anger. I knew there was a demon in the store beside me. I stepped in, and found myself quietly and determinedly seeking it out. It hid everywhere it could. It feared being seen by me, one small saint of God.

At another time, during a meeting I found myself filled with the same fire and sitting very, very quietly. I looked around the room, again slowly and deliberately and then saw it. It was sitting so close behind a man it was almost - but not - in him. It was the little beady red eyes I saw. And it saw me staring at it. Our eyes locked and I was all aflame with the same power that the angels that visit me have. Then something bounced off my chest. I felt a blow and it fled. I was uninjured, but it was - I know - utterly and completely terrified of my presence and of the great power of God that was glowing within me.

On another occasion people were complaining of a terrible smell in an upper room. It was like dog shite and as if a corpse was stuck below the floor boards. Sometimes it was strong, at other times it was absent. It was a terrible, foul smell indeed. I was downstairs in the loo and saw it. The demon had squeezed itself into a very small cupboard immediately below the floor above. It had done this in terror as the power of God was there with me. I used the words of Jesus and bound it (Matt 16:18) using words The LORD had recently led me to believe were for me and for my ministry.

The poor beast - yes, I felt some pity - was stuck there for months before The LORD arranged for its removal. On another occasion I was in conversation with a friend, in my living room, and he said, 'Look over there'. Beside the curtain was a red-eyed demon. It was standing transfixed by our stares, utterly terrified and trembling. The LORD told me this thing was a spy sent by the enemy to find out what we were saying.

Remember this: satan is only a created being. He is not omnipresent or omniscient. He only knows what we say and do as is reported to him. He is not God. He is not a god.

Anyhoo, I went over to this being, stood almost nose-to-nose with it, and bound it. It stood in the corner of my dining room for months before The LORD arranged for its removal. I again felt a tiny bit of pity, but that was all.

The biggest demonic encounter I had was with a friend. We were in charge of the renovation of a remarkably falling-down house. It was only 50 years old, but everything was falling apart: windows, floors, woodwork, etc. What was the problem? My friend, another Christian, said the house made him feel very cold. It was a remarkably damp and cold house.

We were standing outside one day, and opened the door. We found ourselves doing this with great care and precision. He went to step in and I put my arm in front of him. We both began to pray out loud, myself in English and my friend in a tongue of The Spirit. As we did so, demons rushed past us out of the house. They were running in a terrified melee, even bumping into and brushing us as they fled.

At last there was only one left, and he was one, I knew in my spirit, of the enemy's generals. For this was a Christian minister's house, and several ministers work had come to grief here in recent years. I saw him as the blackest blackness in a spare room at the back of the house. I prayed over it for some time, binding it in Christ's name.

The binding isolated it to that room. On subsequent visits I could move around the room. It moved away from me, enraged, a powerful general of the enemy of God, trapped and imprisoned by a simple saint of God. I eventually asked God what would happen to it and he said, 'I will take it away.' And He did.

My friend and I, on another occasion were talking and he said, 'There was a spirit of anger here.' He said he felt anger and violence. Later, we found in the garage a punch-ball and boxing gloves. Strange things for a pastor to have. In The Spirit we knew that a pastor here had been a man of violence. It was this weakness that had invited the demons in. And they came. And they came. Until the family and the house rotted and fell apart.

Demons and the enemy are corrupt. Everything they touch corrupts: families, lives, governments, etc. But, they are as nothing before one drop of the redeeming blood of the LORD Jesus Christ. Just one silly saint of God can turn aside an army of demons. More than that, they flee from us.

But, here's the rub, without the redemption of Christ there is only corruption, illness and death. As we stand with God, purified by Christ every day and hour, using the gifts he gives us in the spiritual realms (Eph 1:3), we will overcome the enemy and he will run from us.

But, it's a battle. Which side are you on: redemption or corruption.