Two Answers About Demonic Behavior

But let me bring up two questions which are habitually asked by people who are newly confronted with this truth and this ministry. The first one is, “How do I know if I’m completely free?” And I always disappoint people with my answer. It is not my business to give you a certificate. And if I did, it wouldn’t be worth the paper that it’s written on.

I don't know for sure that any of you is completely free. I’m not sure that I can give myself a certificate either. What you have learnt, which is really valuable, is the reality of evil spirits and how to deal with them. And that’s worth a thousand certificates. That’s all I aim to do, is bring you face to face with the fact that evil spirits are real. They’re part of your experience, and you can deal successfully with them. And so far as I’m able, I give you the scriptural principles that have been proved in experience for doing this. And after that, the ball is in your court, and you’ve got to do the next job. You don’t sound satisfied, but that’s the way it is.

The next question, which is not so important, is, “Where do the evil spirits go to?” The answer, basically, is they go looking for another place to occupy. Jesus said in Matthew 12, if you want to turn there you can, we might as well look at it. Matthew 12, and I think it’s verse 43 and following. This is a general statement, not made about some specific individual, but generally.

“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, ‘I will return into my house from whence I came out.’ And when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

So when evil spirits go out, they look for somewhere to find rest, and their characteristic is they cannot rest outside a body. Preferably a human body, but failing that, even the body of a pig or some other animal, rather than be disembodied. And their first thought, apparently, according to the words of Jesus, is to return into the person from whom they have gone. And they describe that person as ‘my house’. This is exactly how they think and exactly how they speak. Several times I have heard the spirit within a person describe that person as ‘my house’. Actually, their thinking is so perverted that they feel they have a legitimate right to be there, and they are extremely aggrieved. They’re really upset when you challenge their right to occupy a person.

“Why don’t you send them to the pit?” Or a lot of other suggested places, some even more foolish than that. Well, as far as I’m concerned, I do not plan to improve on the ministry of Jesus. If I can get that far, believe me, I’ll be satisfied. Jesus never sent them to the pit, as far as it’s recorded. When they plead with him to go into the swine, he said, “Go into the swine.” Both Jesus and the evil spirits knew that God the Father had a time program. There was a time coming when they would be confined to a place of imprisonment and punishment. But they all knew that that time had not yet come, and Jesus never anticipated the Father’s program.

“Why did he let the evil spirits out of the Gadarene demoniac go into the swine?” Well, that’s a question which is not answered in Scripture. But my personal opinion is for the sake of the man. He, the demons said, when Jesus said, “What is thy name?” The answer came, “My name is Legion: for we are many.” Now, I’m only mentioning this as a fact. A Roman legion numbered about 6,000 persons. I’m not saying there were 6,000 demons in that person, but there could have been. And had they gone out unwillingly, I think they’d have torn him apart. So for the sake of the man, Jesus gave them leave to go without putting up the maximum opposition. I believe this on the basis of experience. I have seen people delivered from maybe 15 or 20 demons, so totally exhausted that they apparently couldn’t stand anything more physically. However, that is an opinion, and it’s subject to Scripture.