Cian said:
Many Christians appear to believe in demons. I have a few questions that I would like to be answered on the topic.
1. Do you believe they exist, if so, then on what basis do you base your belief?
Revelation 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, 8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
2. What is the purpose of the demons? What drives their behavior?
Attitude ..... Ezekiel 28:1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said,
I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: 3 Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel;
there is no secret that they can hide from thee: 4 With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures: 5 By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: 6Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD;
Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; 7 Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and
they shall defile thy brightness. 8
They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. 9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. 10
Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. 11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon
the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold:
the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14
Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 16
By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee,
O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. +17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty,
thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. 18
Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. 19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.
3. Do you believe that demons possess humans, if so, for what reason would they do this?
To drive people nuts.
4. Do you believe there is some sort of supernatural battle between good and evil?
Matthew 4:24 And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and
those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. Matthew 8:16 When the even was come,
they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: Matthew 12:22 Then was brought unto him
one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. Mark 5:15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was
possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.
There is more to this than just the desire to possess and harrass us. 1 Corinthians 3:16
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
The Temple of God, that Moses laid out in the sand was the pattern, which we are to look and see ourselves, through Yeshua Christ, as a part of. It is the foundation of the truth found in the old testament and must be seen in relationship to Yeshua.The Holy Spirit wants to dwells in everyone, what we have is our conscience. Yeshua is waiting for you to invite Him into your life that He may be the high Priest of your heart and life in a fuller measure. Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
If someone come to your home and offer you something that would make your life better, you would first have to open the door and let that somone in. If you do not want what is offered, you can refuse entry and naturally would not benefited from the experience or the product offered. Yeshua, through the Holy Spirit, stands at the door but if you ignore him long enough he will turn away and leave. While he is at the door he does speak to us and our human conscious but as time goes on and if we ignore it, we will lose. Let us not confuse the spirit of man that was breathed into Adam by God and all people do have it but that is different than the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which every believer who has let Yeshua come into their hearts and minds has. Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
In the Gospel of John chapter 14 Yeshua says,John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Here Yeshua promises to send them the Holy Spirit which they received at Pentecost. They did not yet have this indwelling. Notice also Yeshua states in 14:17 that the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit because they neither see or know him.
In Acts we see that before the Holy Spirit came the apostles were not doing much of anything. They were afraid, weak and powerless because the human spirit is weak. But then, Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And what did the Apostles accomplish on that very first day of receiving the Holy Spirit? Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
What did Peter tell these people they would receive if they repented? Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Yeshua Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
It is true that the human spirit is of divine origin but we can trample and defile that spirit making it unholy and fit only for destruction. It will convict us, when we are wrong, in what we say or do. As it was when Yeshua wrote in the sand before the accusers so it is with us today. John 8:9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Yeshua was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
Paul often talked about the conscience as a important aspect in understanding where you stand with God. Acts 23:1 And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. Acts 24:16 And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void to offence toward God, and toward men.
And the main reason Paul did this, is because of his faith in God giving him a conscience as the voice of the Holy Spirit in the Temple of His Mind.
Faith and repentance, people want to embrace the faith part; but the repentance part, that's a bit more difficult because in today's day and age, it's hard to define what exactly you are turning back towards when you turn away from your sin. Everyone seems to have different standards as to what they believe repentance should look like from changing clothing, changing hairstyle, to changing music. All those things for different people "prove" that they have repented and turned from their old sinful lives. But, they all seem to miss that God, in His infinite wisdom, wrote out exactly what repentance should look like. It was all outlined on Mount Sinai.
No one can agree on what a "holy life", "sinless life" should look like. So they start throwing around things like "personal conviction." Where in the world in Scripture is the term personal conviction? It's just another way to package up relativism - what works for you is great, it must be a conviction from God, but don't try to make me adhere to it for God might, will, did convict me of something different. Without everyword of the Word of God, we all go astray.
Romans 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;
Romans 9 :1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
2 Corinthians 4:2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
1 Timothy 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
1 Timothy 3:9 Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
So how important is the conscience as an indicator of your relationship with God? Now that depends upon how much of the Word of God is in you. It is the indicator of the level of sinfulness and sins, the burdens of the heart and together they bring us back to God. And you are truly repentant, God will say neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.
Hebrews 10:2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
If the Holy Spirit of God dwells in you then you are a part of Gods temple, which in the end of earths history will add up to be such a great multitude, Holy and true to God, by the time the Lord returns. We, the great multitude, will then become a citizen of the City of God.
Ephesians 2:19-22 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Yeshua Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a Holy Temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
With Christ as the cornerstone of the City of God, and prophets, the foundation of the city, we are to become the very pillars of the temple as seen in
Rev 21:14 Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And we (the saints) are the very pillars of the temple.
So let us begin at the Temple of God template that Moses was given on Mount Sinai so that we too may understand how our spiritual temple should operate. Let us look and see where everything is and why.
Hebrews 8:5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
Hebrews 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
To be a part of the Temple of God, we need to take a closer look at the pattern of things, that in heaven with the best sacrifice, our Lord Yeshua Christ, will purify us for the New Heaven and New Earth to come.
5. How long do you think this has this battle been waged on and which side will win in the end?
Thanks,
Cian
Revelation 20:9
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
I want to share my experiences with everyone because maybe someone reading this needs to be reading what I went through as an encouragement, but I understand that what I have written sounds crazy and the choice is ours as individuals to make, we have free will. Thank God we do too. I was so distraught by these deceiving spirits that I actually turned on myself and almost refused to let God comfort and save me because I believed the lies I heard, that I wasn't in the Lamb's Book of Life and that He didn't Love me, but the wondeful Good News is He does Love us unconditionally, and right where we are too, and it is our responsibility to then give that love to others who 'don't deserve it' so, sorry for the ramble but I hope something I said will help someone anyway.
