How demons Work to Control Us, Ep 10
Welcome back! My name is Dawn Simmons and I am your host for Conquering Our Unseen Enemies. In this episode we are going to discuss how demons work to control us and discuss techniques you can use that will serve to not only defend but give you some offensive power in the name of Jesus. We will examine one process of control satan uses against us for his purposes. Specifically, we will be examining how possessiveness, manipulation, and dominance all work together to bring us to a place where satan controls the incomes and outcomes of our lives. I'll also share some of my experiences working with a young man who has allowed satan to control him but is trying to regain his life with Jesus. I am letting you know now, this is a hard episode for me, a dark episode to share because I want to give you a look into the reality of another person without trying to be sensationalist or scary. It is a scary place for someone already there, and I want to keep as many people as I can from being in this position.
Let's first talk a little about control and apply the concepts we discussed in the last episode, demon groupings. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to that, try to get that in because it lays some groundwork that is important to understand. One thing I did discuss in that episode that I want to bring up again is demons function as experts, specialists, in a particular area. So in the area of control, the demon of control will get some help in possessiveness, manipulation and dominance from other demons that frequently are associated with insecurity, sadness, fear, inferiority, rejection, accusation, guilt, and anger may make an appearance but not always.
In the beginning of the process of control, demons will seek to be very possessive over someone. I don't mean possess; I mean to behave possessive towards the person. This can be done by creating a false sense of comfort. A familiar spirit is particularly well equipped for this role. In many cases, this feeling of possessiveness from the enemy is welcomed because the person has encountered rejection and may feel inferior and insecure. The moment the person feels a sensation of something, no matter what it is, wanting to be possessive over them, that sensation is wrongly interpreted as love. The blinders are being put on the person through this one act of possessiveness. The income is a comfort which begins through manipulation. A counterfeit of love begins to permeate the landscape of the heart and mind of the individual. If you are wondering how this could possibly happen, think of how many people are truly starved for affection, devotion, true love in their lives, not just romantic love. Their childhood lacked the support and love one would ideally receive from their parent. A marriage or relationship is torn apart. Have you ever met someone who goes from relationship to relationship and cannot be alone? Those weaknesses are being exploited and the deception has created a counterfeit love to open the door for additional demons to enter. These demons begin to plant their seeds of doubt and fear and paranoia frequently joins the group. The outcome is this person begins to pull back from usual social circles and is instead accompanied by all the demons for emotional support. This begins subtly to pull the person into a sense of safety but in reality, the noose is being placed to begin to remove the life they have left and begin bondage. The use of manipulation to create this atmosphere is done with precision until they have achieved complete domination.
The use of control against us cripples our minds and our hearts. Our bodies soon follow. Why is this so important? The enemy needs to strip you of your free will in order to get you positioned to accept what will ultimately happen when you are completely dominated. I know this sounds dark, I hate that this is so dark, coming out of my mouth, but I want to tell you this so you will never end up here. I recently worked with a young man, let's call him John, who was completely controlled by the demonic. Every aspect of John's life was in bondage. The demons had already done so much damage that his mind only had moments of clarity to acknowledge and describe what was happening. He asked for help to be rid of these demons and he asked for it to happen within a few days. John is easily the most severe case of demonization I have ever seen or of which I have any personal knowledge.
As we began to talk during our second meeting, John was intermittently clear minded. The more we discussed and identified specific demons the more erratic the thoughts, speech and his body became. The prework I require, he did not bring. The team was assembled however, and the Lord said to continue so I continued to ask questions. I was trying to discern who the strongman was and who all were demonizing him. At no point was John in complete control of his mind. He would move in and out of answers that made no sense to the average person. Understand that to others John just looked like someone who was not very social, nervous, stressed, just a little different. There was nothing physically wrong with him. The more we talked, demons were being identified and you could see distinct physical reactions to their identification. John walked through all the steps to move forward in evicting these demons. Understand I do nothing lightly and John's safety is always most important as is our own safety. Also, on my team and present is a licensed behavioral health specialist. Thankfully, several demons were evicted with John's help. I will generally try to keep a record for the person I am working with, but it was impossible in this case. It was very a difficult, long process and the more progress we made, the more difficult it became, the resistance was stronger. Listen to me, please listen to me, if you hear nothing else in this entire podcast, please hear this. You have got to hold onto your heart, you have got to maintain control of your mind. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us, 'be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.' Build your mind of Christ and protect it in the name of Jesus. It is so valuable to Jesus and sometimes we don't understand how valuable. If you fall, and find yourself in sin, GET UP. Get up and get back to the Lord. The torment I saw in John you do not want. If you don't know how to get back up, email me! Email me please! I want no one to endure what I saw happening with John. 1 John 5:19 tells us, 'We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one' but we are not the world, we are not under the control of the evil one unless we quit protecting our own house. 1 Thessalonians 4:4, tells us 'that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable'. Most who read this think it means restrictions. This is the lie satan wants us to believe, because the truth is by living with control of our bodies and minds, we will live in freedom, the freedom of Jesus and not the bondage of the enemy. The spirit of control has a long far reach once it gains dominance. The key is to recognize the signs and symptoms before dominance occurs.
I want to switch gears a little and talk about manipulation. The main tool used in manipulation is guilt. It keeps our wounds alive and demons will keep pressing into it. The pressing methods can be both direct and subtle. Demons cannot directly come at someone to manipulate them each time, the process has to change. For this to work, the demons have to give the person a false sense of security and then begin to move in with subtle advances to manipulate and bring the person to their knees. Regardless of the conversations or interactions, the guilt tool will always come back around so that the person is never truly free. There are false senses of freedom but there is always a noose there, present to yank them back in line periodically to remind them of their bondage of sadness, fear, insecurity, and inferiority. It doesn’t start out this way but that is the hole you are being taken into slowly. The person will soon lose perspective. He or she will soon not see light as the darkness pervades their mind. The idea is the dark is meant to overtake the mind so that soon you will only recognize darkness and will find comfort and solace in what you know and are becoming familiar with. Through that process the person will become a slave. The bondage will not end. It is like King Zedekiah with his eyes being gouged out as he was led away in chains to Babylon and you know nothing but the bondage. This is where satan seeks to take you in their domination.
Being possessive and manipulative are controlling, but domination is where the act of control eclipses all else and the person is no longer able to think clearly for themselves. Demons will let you function for the most part in your life, but you may not be able to keep a job, keep your marriage, or worst of all keep yourself together. We have all seen people on the streets talking to themselves and seemingly in another world. If we don't keep our house in order and keep control of our minds, that is the end result. It will wreck you financially, emotionally, physically and intellectually.
John was specifically dealing with issues of sadness, nervousness, paranoia, confusion, tension, sexual sin, with anger appearing at times. There were many more but these were the ones driving most of the behaviors and were controlling him. There were several manifestations of the demonic presence which would change depending on who was in control. We will have an episode just on manifestations, it's not our focus here so I'm not going into detail at this time. I want you to understand that while John's level of control and demonization is extreme, it is out there. Satan is out there to what, well Jesus told us "to steal, kill and destroy" If you had even one of these areas to contend with, you would have real difficulty. We know that you will likely, I mean the chances are so rare that I can't even name a number statistically, but you will likely never have just one demon attacking you. John's story hasn't ended yet. Unfortunately, John isn't yet willing to give up everything. Remember the podcast dealing with familiar spirits? Well, John also had familiar spirits that he would not let go of in order to be free. In the episode on familiar spirits we talked about:
o The first way these spirits integrate is more difficult to discern. The familiar spirit uses deception by appearing to be a good companion or providing some sort of benefit, useful information for example.
Familiar spirits use manipulation. In this case, because John is not married, they are providing companionship. It's not a healthy companionship, but if John won't let them go, the demons get to stay. One interesting thing I want to point out in this case with John, usually when a familiar spirit uses a person we know, it's a person who has passed. With John, it was all people who were still alive. Very uncommon.
So where do we go from here? You now know about John and his difficult battle to regain control. We need to do as Peter advised us and be alert and of sober mind. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 2:16 'But we have the mind of Christ'. Make sure you do, truly make sure you do. How are you handling demonic influences coming at you? Are you rebuking them immediately? Are you pondering on them a while? If you aren't rebuking them immediately you are beginning to play with fire. You have the matches in your hand essentially. Let's go through some techniques you can use that will serve to not only defend but give you some offensive power in the name of Jesus.
1. Rebuke in the name of Jesus. If this is all you can do, this is a good start to building up a defense. As soon as you have any sense of something coming at you to tempt or attack simply say "I rebuke that in the name of Jesus." Think of it like tennis, be like Serena and when it's coming at you, rebuke. It will come back at you again another way, rebuke it. Just keep rebuking and eventually the enemy will realize it needs to move on and you can celebrate like Serena!
2. Add scripture to your rebuke. These are easy ones to remember and pull out of your mind quickly. If this is all you can do, this is a good start to building up your offense.
a. Isaiah 54:17, No weapon formed against me shall prosper
b. Luke 10:19, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.
c. Romans 14:11, As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me; every tongue with acknowledge God.
d. Romans 16:20, The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
3. Give thanks to the Lord. A thankful heart is a protected heart. This will begin the process of creating an atmosphere around you that will over time keep the enemy from wanting to be near you and he will move on, away from you.
a. 1 Corinthians 15:57, Thanks be to God! Gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
b. 1 Thessalonians 5:18, In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
c. 1 Chronicles 16:8, Give praise to the Lord, proclaim His name; make known to the nations what He has done.
d. Psalms 100:4, Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise: give thanks to Him and praise His name.
4. Scriptures to build up your strength. Adding this will position you not only to keep your house clean but help someone else with their house.
a. Ephesians 6:10-17 – The Armor of God
i. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
b. Psalms 31:3
i. Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
c. Job 42:2
i. I know you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
d. Joshua 23:14
i. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.
These scriptures are just to get you something easy to have readily available. A scripture journal is an even better way to start building up your weapons to start conquering our unseen enemies.
That was a lot to take in, I know. Let’s do a recap to hit on the highlights:
Top show points are:
· Demons function as experts, specialists, in a particular area
· In the area of control, the demon of control will get some help in possessiveness, manipulation and dominance from other demons that frequently are associated with insecurity, sadness, fear, inferiority, rejection, accusation, guilt, and anger may make an appearance but not always.
· In the beginning of the process of control, demons will seek to be very possessive over someone. I don't mean possess; I mean to behave possessive towards the person. This can be done by creating a false sense of comfort.
· Weaknesses are being exploited and the deception has created a counterfeit love to open the door for additional demons to enter. These demons begin to plant their seeds of doubt and fear and paranoia frequently joins the group.
· The main tool used in manipulation is guilt. It keeps our wounds alive and demons will keep pressing into it. The pressing methods can be both direct and subtle.
· Being possessive and manipulative are controlling, but domination is where the act of control eclipses all else and the person is no longer able to think clearly for themselves.
· We need to do as Peter advised us and be alert and of sober mind.
· Some techniques you can use that will serve to not only defend but give you some offensive power in the name of Jesus.
o Rebuke in the name of Jesus. If this is all you can do, this is a good start to building up a defense.
o Add scripture to your rebuke. These are easy ones to remember and pull out of your mind quickly. If this is all you can do, this is a good start to building up your offense.
o Give thanks to the Lord. A thankful heart is a protected heart. This will begin the process of creating an atmosphere around you that will over time tire the enemy out and he will move on, away from you
o Scriptures to build up your strength. Adding this will position you not only to keep your house clean but help someone else with their house.
o Create a scripture journal to start building up your weapons to start conquering our unseen enemies.
We encourage you:
· To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment
· Just for fun. If you want to start building your scripture journal, of course you can use any journal or notebook, but if you want to have a cool looking Conquering Our Unseen Enemies journal, we have one in the Warrior Shop on the website. I personally think it looks cool, of course I am biased because I designed it, but it also helps support the podcast which we appreciate as well.
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