Demons?!

Uh-oh, did I just say demon? That word tends to make a lot of people uneasy, especially because it’s often linked to religious ideas.

A demon is a type of spirit that can take control of a person. For example, imagine someone getting really angry when a driver cuts them off. The anger takes over their mind, making them say and do things they wouldn't normally do. In this case, it's like the "spirit of rage" is sitting in the driver's seat of their mind, guiding their actions. Now, you might ask, “Why are we calling this a demon? Can’t it just be the person’s own emotions or reaction?” And that’s the key point. When something like rage takes over, it's as if the person is giving full control to this spirit. It’s like handing over the keys and letting a demonic spirit take control of your actions. This is why people sometimes say things like, “Is Jim okay today? He’s just not acting like himself.” It’s as if the person is temporarily "vacant" and something else is taking over, and often people’s moods shift when dark thoughts overwhelm the mind.

Think of it like hiring a hitman to do something you don’t want to do yourself. While the hitman is the one carrying out the act, you are still responsible because you are the one who asked for it. Similarly, when someone lets a spirit, like anger or hate or unforgivness, take control, they share responsibility for the outcome. Even if they didn’t physically act out the rage, their permission allowed the spirit to take over.

In our everyday lives, we don't often think about emotions in a spiritual way. For many people, emotions are just a natural reaction to what happens in life. But for those who see things spiritually, emotions are more than just feelings—they are influenced by the spirits we allow into our lives. Every emotion we experience can be tied to a spirit that we invite to influence us, whether we realize it or not. If we can identify that the spirit is separate from the person, we can begin to remove it and keep it from coming back.

But then the question arises: What force is powerful enough to remove a dark or evil spirit from someone? That’s where Jesus Christ comes in. A big part of Jesus’s ministry was about freeing people from demonic spirits. If we started to see demons as real, disembodied spirits that can influence us, we’d realize that people aren’t demons themselves. Instead, they can become hosts for these spirits, but they can also be freed from them through the power of Jesus.

Demons feed off your addictions, sin, and ego. To defeat a demon, you must take away its source of nourishment. The goal of the demonic is to deceive you, keeping you from recognizing sin in your life and, even further, convincing you that your sin is actually benefiting you, rather than leading to destruction. Many people, particularly those who don’t embrace the spiritual, have little awareness of the deception and wickedness in their own hearts. Unfortunately, we create layers to hide the deceit within. We may say something kind to one person to mask the fact that we're speaking ill of another. We may help others while living selfishly in every other aspect of our lives. True freedom isn't found in simply covering up sin with good deeds; it's found in living in the righteousness God gives us through faith in Jesus Christ. Righteousness doesn’t need to hide or cover up anything, because when you are righteous, sin no longer has any control over you.

For example, you might once have been indifferent to the homeless, but then you have an encounter that shows you the heart, love, and genuine goodness of a homeless person. This experience completely shifts your perspective. In moments like these, God removes a barrier from your heart, and you can no longer think about the world in the same way. It's impossible. It’s like when you first learn to distinguish between a triangle and a circle—once you know the difference, you can't confuse them again. The same is true with God’s loving spirit. The wonderful thing is that as God opens your heart through one transformative encounter, a cosmic spiritual shift begins to occur. It's as though the protective armor around your heart starts to break, one crack at a time, allowing His love to flow in.