Encounter with Demons - 2
"Jesus cut him short. 'Be silent! Come out of the man.' At that, the evil spirit screamed and threw the man into a convulsion, but then he left him. Amazement gripped the audience, and they began to discuss what had happened. 'What sort of new teaching is this?' they asked excitedly. 'It has such authority! Even evil spirits obey his orders!' The news of what he had done spread quickly through that entire area of Galilee." Mark 1:25-28 (NLT).
Something about this passage of scripture intrigues me. It is the reaction of the people when Jesus casts out an evil spirit. Notice what they said, "Even evil spirits obey his orders!" They did not question the reality of demons or demon possession. Their words show that the people of Jesus' day accepted the reality of the presence of demons around them.
This would not be true in our day. Today, if Jesus were to cast out a demon, people would say, "Hey, what's that nut doing? Doesn't he know that this guy just has a mental disorder? He needs treatment, not exorcism." Or, "There's no such thing as demons, this guy must be off his rocker."
While there undoubtedly is the legitimate reality of mental disorders and medically explained personality dysfunctions, I believe that demons still exist today, and are just as active in trying to defeat God's people as they were in Jesus' day.
Now we don't want to see a demon around every corner, or attribute every evil act to demon possession or demon influence. The Bible says that our sin natures produce sinful behavior, and we can do it all by ourselves without even having the smell of a demon nearby (See Galatians 5:19-21).
However, we cannot go the worldly route of denying that demons even exist, either. When we see a serial killer who is obsessed with murdering innocent people, to what do we attribute that? I believe demons are involved - - heavily.
It is the nature of demons to rail against everything and anything that is holy, to buck authority, and battle anyone that seeks to obey God.
Notice that when Jesus told the demon to remain silent, he immediately and defiantly disobeyed. Instead of being silent, he screamed. Instead of just quickly coming out, he threw the man into convulsions.
This is the nature of demons - - to rebel; to defy God; to resist doing what God wants them to do. The convulsions the demons gave this man were their way of demonstrating one last moment of defiance to the authority of Christ. It's sort of like a kid that throws a temper tantrum when his parents tell him to do something he doesn't want to do. He obeys, but only after defiantly throwing himself on the floor and screaming.
This is how it was with the demons Jesus cast out. The obeyed him, but only after throwing a temper tantrum, because they weren't getting their way.
This is how we should view demons. We shouldn't view them as horrible, ugly creatures who scare us to death, but merely as fallen angels that are completely self-centered and who will throw temper tantrums rather than obey God.
Don't misunderstand. We should not forget that demons can be powerful, and we should have a healthy respect for their power. But in the end, they have lost and will lose. Jesus has defeated them.
You can defeat them, too, in Jesus' name. Christians should be able to command them to leave, and they must obey.
Remember what the Bible says, "Humble yourselves before God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you." James 4:7-8.
Indeed.