Identifying Spirits in Your Character

We want to deal with what I call the city within. I have said that, though a Christian belongs to the Lord, there may be areas within him where the Lord is not in control. And the Bible compares the inner nature of man to a city.

“He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ‘ruleth’ his spirit than he that ‘taketh’ a city.”

So, ruling your own spirit is better than taking a city in war.

“He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.”

No defense. He can’t keep anything out. Any demon that the devil sends against him can come in and settle in that city because it has no protection. Now, many drug addicts are like that. Persistent dope addiction makes a person inwardly like a city broken down and without walls. Everything will come in, one after another. And you'll find most persistent drug addicts not merely need deliverance from the drug, say heroin. They need deliverance from deception, hatred, resentment, rebellion, sex perversion, and all sorts of other things because they've lost the ability to keep anything out of that inner city within them.

Now, there are other people besides drug addicts that have become like a city that is broken down and without walls. But my purpose in speaking is to bring out this illustration of the city that's within each one of us. And the city I always use to illustrate this is one which I lived, Chicago. Now, the mayor of Chicago is Richard J. Daley. And many people feel he’s doing a good job as mayor. But though Richard J. Daley is duly elected mayor, everybody who knows Chicago knows there are quite a lot of areas in Chicago where Richard J. Daley is not in control.

There are some areas in Chicago where even the police have to go two at a time in daylight. There are other areas of Chicago, and they include certain areas of the political life of the city, which are run by the Mafia. Although Daley is the duly elected mayor. Now, this is like a Christian. You’ve elected Jesus Christ. He’s mayor. He’s in the mayor’s chamber. But you’ve still got the Mafia running around somewhere inside.

And as a matter of fact, the Mafia actually is a very vivid picture of demon activity because demons regularly operate in gangs. They do not operate singly. So much so that I've learned, if I meet one member of a gang, to look for the other, almost instantly. For instance, let’s take a few. You have the case of, well, let’s say, depression, fear, loneliness, self-pity, despair. You know the next one? Suicide. That’s right. And when you find that group, you just, it’s only a question of time if suicide hasn’t come in. It may be that he hasn’t had time. Each one opens the way for the next.

Or you can take anger, violence, and the next one, murder. Now, bear this in mind, demons do not come in necessarily because you've committed the thing. They come in to make you commit the thing. For instance, the demon of suicide obviously doesn't come in because you've committed suicide, but it comes in to make you commit suicide. The demon of murder does not come in because you've committed murder. It comes in to make you commit murder. Lots of people have said to me in horror when I've called the demon of murder out of them, “Brother Prince, I’ve never committed murder.” I say, “No, but that demon came in with the intention of making you commit murder somewhere further along the line. And as long as you had him in, you were always in a dangerous position because in a sudden moment of anger, who knows what you would have done?”

How many people you read about in the newspaper commit murder, and when they’re charged with it, they say, “I don’t know what made me do it.” No, they don’t. But the devil does. He had that demon waiting there, maybe 15 years, till he got that man to a place where he was drunk and somebody insulted him or ran off with his wife. And then that demon of murder went into top gear and said, “Now’s my opportunity.”

Other people have the demon of adultery who have not committed adultery, but it’s there pushing them into it.