How Demons Work in Christians

Lots of people think that the Holy Spirit will only start to work in you and bless you when you’re perfect. But isn’t that silly? Because when you’re perfect, you won’t need it.

The idea that you’ve got to be perfect before the Holy Spirit will move in and do things for you is like sending young people to a university and the professors come to them and saying, “Now, when you young people graduate, we’ll start to teach you.”

See, when do you need teaching? Before you graduate. Ah, when we get to heaven we'll have graduated. Then, I don’t know that we'll need all that teaching, but we need the Holy Spirit to help us now, in our weaknesses. You know what

“Romans 8:26”

says? “The Spirit helpeth our infirmities.” The places where we’re weak, the places where we’re having problems is just where we need the Holy Spirit.

And likewise, evil spirits, though they cannot own a Christian, can move in and be in residence and occupy certain areas of their personality.

To illustrate it from personal experience, I was a full gospel preacher for a good many years, but I had various internal problems. I’ll mention only one. It’s a common one. It was depression. Another thing I noticed was, when I really wanted to serve Christ to the utmost, that was when the pressure was worst. But, when I was content to kind of go along with the stream and not make too much effort against the kingdom of Satan, the pressure let up.

And I could not find the solution to this, until one day, reading in

“Isaiah, chapter 61, verse 3,”

I read this phrase: “The garment of praise in place of the spirit of heaviness.” And when I read that phrase, “the spirit of heaviness,” I suddenly saw, that’s your problem. It’s not a mental attitude. It’s not a psychological attitude. It’s a person, a spirit that knows you. And immediately I saw a whole host of truth. I saw that the same spirit had troubled my father most of the time that I knew him, that it was a kind of family ghost that followed us down from generation to generation. I could trace its activity.

And I realized that it understood me. It knew my faults. And it definitely planned its strategy against me. And that it was, had one supreme aim: to prevent me serving Christ effectively.

I will tell you this with regard to demons. Their headquarters are in Satan’s kingdom and they have two main orders in relation to you. Number one, to keep you from Christ. If they fail in that, their second order is to stop you serving Christ effectively. Well, if they can't stop you from being a Christian, then they’ll stop you from being an effective Christian.

Now, you will find out that this makes an sense and explains a whole lot of things in your experience. For instance, why can you stay awake till midnight watching the TV, but fall asleep before 10:00 if you read your Bible? Because the demon of slumber, which is referred to both in Old Testament and in New, doesn’t mind you watching The Late Night Show with Johnny Carson, but does mind you getting to know the word of God, see?

Or, you take the little, the case we had of the neighbors with a pestilential little girl of about three. And we used to watch, Friday night when they went out grocery shopping, she’d dress up and walk out all smiling and sweet. Sunday morning, when they wanted to go to the full gospel Sunday school and church, she’d lie on the floor and kick her legs in the air and scream. Because the spirit in that little girl didn’t mind the grocery store, but hated the full gospel church, you see?

And if you will work out a lot of things that happen in your life. I sometimes tell people in meetings like this, now, if you find an absolutely abnormal resentment for Brother Prince rising in you right now, be on your guard. I mean there are many good reasons why you could resent me, but if I’ve done nothing to you, and it suddenly rises up in you, remember it’s the devil trying to stop you from coming to me for help.

See, you you Behind these things, if they are demonic, there’s always an intelligence that plots and plans and works out how to frustrate you, defeat you, keep you miserable, make you sick, and if possible, kill you.

That’s their objective. Don’t forget what Jesus said about the devil.

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, to kill, to destroy.”

That’s why he’s there. If you tolerate him, that’s what he’s doing. Don’t forget. You tolerate Satan in any area of your life whatever. He’s there to steal, to take away the things that are rightfully yours, your peace of mind, your innocence, your health, your right relationships with your family and neighbors, your prosperity, your success. All these good things that are yours in Christ, the devil will seek to steal from you. Secondly, he’s there to kill you physically.

And many Christians every year die murdered, murdered by cancer, tumors and all sorts of things. They don't live out their natural, normal, appointed lifespan. They’re murdered by the devil. And then, the third thing he does to the unsaved, not to the believer, is to torment them eternally after death. That’s his program. Jesus warned us. He said, be very clear why the devil comes, what his aims are. They’re stated for you: “Steal, kill, destroy.” So if you make friends with him, you know the kind of person you’ve made friends with.