Demon Possession

Scripture

Many were possessed by demons; and the demonscame out at his command, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But because they knew he was the Messiah, he rebuked them and refused to let them speak.

Luke 4:41, NLT

Quote

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”

~C.S. Lewis

The subject of demon possession came up in our Men’s bible study group yesterday and someone asks me if I believed that demons could possess a person and my answer was yes. I don’t think they questioned it being a problem in Jesus life time but they were wondering if people today could be possessed by demons. Erwin Lutzer’s book on Hitler would be a good read if you are interested. He says Hitler was a devout worshipper of Satan and no doubt some of his followers were Satan worshippers also. A more recent example would be Charles Manson. I am reading John Phillips commentary on Proverbs and in yesterday’s reading, he talked about Mason. His so called “family” were his followers; they worshipped him. Manson was heavily in the use of drugs and he knew how to manipulate people of lesser intelligence. Manson believed and taught that women had no souls. According to him, their duty was to serve men and he had about twenty who would do whatever he asks. One of these women, Susan Atkins told a cellmate how Manson would put himself on a fake cross and have the women kneeling beneath him or sacrificing animals or committing all sorts of lude acts. He even taught them to murder people in his behalf. He was purely evil.

Sharon Tate was a beautiful young actress married to director Roman Polanski and she was carrying their unborn child. The Manson Family, not Charles himself, broke into the Polanski and murdered five people. Although Mason was not there is person, he manipulated the event. He was later convicted of first degree murder. The murder happened on my birthday in 1969. I was a sophomore at UCLA at the time. {University of Calhoun Located by the Airstrip}. After Manson was in prison, someone did an interview with him that was televised. I will never forget the eyes. Demon possessed people can look right through you. One of the amazing things about the demon possessed people of Jesus day, they all knew He was the Son of God. They recognized Him immediately.

My advice is simple, don’t dabble in the occult. Have nothing to do with it. Don’t forget Paul admonition: we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Demonic power is real: don’t mess with it. Lewis is right: we don’t deny the power or presence of the demonic world, but neither do we focus on. Our focus is Jesus and we pray daily to be delivered from the evil one.

Extra

God is good. He has sure been good to June and I. We are so thankful for all who have assisted us in this overwhelming project of relocation. I think, LORD willing, we could be moving within the next 14 days. Hopefully, we will finish the bathroom in the next couple of days and start on the kitchen Thursday or Friday evening.

Services were good yesterday. I preached the John 3:16 message at DBC last night, at the POINT last Sunday morning. Everyone is so good to us no matter which side of the county we are on. We are blessed and we are grateful.