Marks of Demonic Activity in a Person

Now, naturally the question arises, “Brother Prince, if I have this recurrent, persistent, disturbing, frustrating problem, how do I know whether it’s just the old man, or whether it’s an evil spirit exploiting the old man?”

Well, on the blackboard, I have written up there in the middle, “Activities of Demons.” And I have learned by experience that these are the main ways in which demons operate and manifest their presence. The things they habitually do. We’ll glance at them. Number one, they entice. This is temptation. The Bible says,

“Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.”

There’s something within each one of us called lust, perverted desire, but there’s an agent that plays upon the lust.

It’s like the mouse. There’s something in the mouse that likes cheese. But to get the mouse into the trap, there’s got to be someone that places the cheese just where it’ll cause the mouse to be caught. Now, the enticer, the agent, is the demon. And he plays upon lust, perverted desires within you and me. One of the basic activities of demons is enticement. Personally, I don’t believe that Satan comes down from the heavenlies every time you and I need to be tempted. I believe he’s got a very well-trained, multitudinous army doing the job for him against us all the time.

He says, “There’s a young man just going into the ministry, and he could be a danger. Demons, get on his tail and get him interested in some smart divorcée who’s got about three children and a rotten past, and get him sidetracked, because otherwise he’s going to do us damage.” See, that’s the piece of cheese that’s baiting the mousetrap. And those evil spirits are playing upon something called sexual lust inside a young man. Just an example.

The next activity is to enslave. Let’s look at this particularly in reference to sex. Now, first of all, in regard to sex, I want to say sex is not evil, contrary to the opinion of most Christians. It’s good, ‘cause God created man sexual, and after he’d created everything, he saw that everything he had created was very good, including sex. The church has got a totally wrong, negative attitude towards sex. However, sex is also very powerful in most persons, and therefore the devil is smart enough to know that if he can get control in the sex area, he’s got a very important measure of control in that person.

Now, the next thing I want to say about sex is, it is no sin to be tempted. Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. So, you can be tempted without sinning. Further, if you are tempted and sin sexually with a wrong act, that does not necessarily mean you need deliverance from a sex demon. You all you need to do is repent, confess to Jesus, receive forgiveness and cleansing, and there you are back again. You’re all right. But, if this thing becomes enslaving, if, no matter how many times you repent and confess and get forgiven and cleansed, you’re back again doing it, then it’s a demon.

Now, I believe every form of sex perversion is demonic in its origin. The third thing demons do is torment. They are the tormentors. In Matthew 18, there’s a parable told about a servant who was forgiven $6 million, and refused to forgive a fellow servant $10. I’m putting it in modern value. And when the master heard about this unforgiving servant, he said, “Thou wicked servant.” He was very wroth, and he commanded him to be delivered to the tormentors till he should pay the uttermost farthing. The last verse of that parable says,

“So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye do not from your hearts forgive every man his brother their brother his trespass.”

What so likewise? To deliver you to the tormentors. Who are the tormentors? The demon.

God awakened me to this fact because I’ve had multitudes of Christians, uncounted multitudes, coming to me in torment. And I said to myself, “God, how could that be? They’re your children. How do they get in the hands of the tormentors?” God said, “I put them there because they refuse to forgive another believer.”

“So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you.”

There are various areas of torment. There’s spiritual torment. The demon of fear is probably the chief tormentor. The apostle John says,

“Fear hath torment.”

Now, there’s a natural fear which is perfectly normal. There’s the fear of the Lord, which is reverence and respect and awe for God, which is clean and endureth forever. But there’s another kind of fear which is demonic. It’s abnormal. It’s unnatural. It’s excessive, and it’s tormenting. There’s a tormentor. And there’s another tormentor, and it’s condemnation. Condemned all the time. The Bible says,

“There is no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus.”

Another tormentor is doubt. And then there’s physical torment. Cancer, arthritis, so on.