Tuesday, October 24, 2023

THE LANGUAGE OF GOD AND DEMONS

I was told in college by my freshman college professor never to put off-color or hateful remarks on paper because the truth often hurts someone. It is not hateful to tell the truth, but it may be perceived as hatefulness to the hearer.

Jesus was explaining that devils could be cast out. Many were amazed at His sayings. However, the Pharisees murmured amongst themselves, “This fellow does not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils” (Mat 12:24).

This commentary is not so much about casting out devils because many Christians in this era do not believe in demons. However, “Jesus knew their thoughts” (Mat 12:25).

Because Jesus is God, He knew their thoughts. They called him the ‘Prince of Devils’ because He understood how devils perform.

Knowing their thoughts, perhaps gives a hint on how to cast out devils. Casting out, in the Greek, is ‘ekballo’ — one meaning of which is “one force overcoming an opposite force.” (Strong 2006).

Devils in the Greek is ‘daimonion,’ messengers’ of the Devil.

 

Now for a revealing. I knew where this commentary was going before I even studied the Greek. A Thought was put into my head that demons within are the thoughts of demonic angels.


 Of course, some people have demonic spirits within them as was the case of the men of the Gergesenes (Mat 8:28), but there are not enough demons for all the evil people in the world.  As such, demons must operate in different modes.

The ‘Prince of Devils’ of course was not really Jesus. He was just called that by hateful men. That ‘Prince’ is the ‘Prince of the Power of the Air” (Ephes 2:2), or archon ho exousia ho aer, in the Greek, or literally the “ruler of physical and mental power of the air” (ibid).

Therefore, devils (demons) control not always by their physical presence in spiritual form, but by transmitting evil thoughts to vulnerable Christians.

Another clue to that premise is what God said, “My Thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my Ways, saith the Lord” (Isa 55:8).

God most often did not speak audibly to the prophets; their thoughts became His Thoughts. God took on flesh to communicate audibly, but before He became flesh, the Messiah, the ‘Messenger of God,” spoke by the transmission of His Thoughts. Jesus was the unspoken but revealed ‘Word’ (John 1:1).

Jesus, before He was manifested physically, spoke by the transmission of Divine Thoughts. It is not a far stretch to assume that demons enter, not the souls of Christians, but their thoughts enter the minds of Christians since spiritual demons and the Holy Spirit cannot be in the same vessels

It is written, “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order” (Mat 12:43-44; ESV). When the evil spirit is gone, it is gone. So, how do demons get back in? They get into the minds of Christians because the soul is rid of them.

It bothered me at a funeral that the preacher said about the then dead Christian; “He had his demons.”

 That is at odds with scripture wherein the person’s vessel is cleansed for the devils not to return. How did he have demons? They transmitted their thoughts to his mind and their will he would do.

The minute that a person trusts Jesus in all things, God cleans his or her ‘houses,’ implied therein is that the ‘Sweeper’ is the Holy Ghost, or Power, of Jesus. The demonic spirit is gone but memories are not. Just as Lot’s wife was freed from the dirty ‘house’ but looked back (Gen 19:26), Christians can do that as well.

Lot’s wife was rid of devils that beguiled the whole city, but she retained her memories.

As she walked to safety, it is apparent that demons spoke to her. They never got into her physically, but beguiled her, much like the ‘Serpent’ beguiled Eve.

I submit that the ‘Serpent’ was a mental image (Nahas in the Hebrew) that got into her mind as well as her flesh. Face it, demons always get into the flesh via the mind. Temptations, or thoughts, lead to physical sin. James explained that well, “When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (Jas 1:15).  Lust is desire — focusing in the mind on things that you should not have.

Having devils, or demons, is not necessarily encounters with another kind, but allowing their thoughts to enter the mind. The body goes where the mind leads, and demonic thoughts lead the mind. That is the prison from which sinners must be made free!

Hence, your thoughts, when you sin, are not God’s Thoughts; they are the thoughts of demons that are no more than messengers of evil to counter the Messages from God.

God provides armor to counter the fiery darts of the wicked ones (demons) (Ephes 6:16). Demons do not hurl fiery darts at Christians; that is metaphoric, but they do piercing thoughts.

That is how the Prince of Demons got into Eve, through her mind by cunning (Gen 3:1) and how they can piece the armor that God provides to Christians.

So, you think you are saved? Why should a Christian wear armor? Why should he be sober and vigilant? Because demons get into your flesh via the mind. Their thoughts penetrate any crevice that they can find in your thinking!

Devils transmit demonic messages all the time. The most obvious is a luscious creature that passes by. Jesus knew that and spoke about it, “Whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Mat 5:28). The heart is the physical receptor, but the mind is the controller. Most sexual activity is not physical but of the mind. It is not so much that behaviors are sinful but things that people are willing to do or not to do.

Demons direct unwilling and rebellious thoughts to even Christians. The helmet of safety [1] (Ephes 6:17) shields the mind from wicked thoughts. (The best way that I have found to shield my thoughts is to study the Word the first thing in the morning and dwell on the Thoughts implanted by God all day long, leaving no time nor need for evil thoughts to enter into the mind.)

This commentary began with thoughts of evil that was spoken audibly by the Pharisees. They could have kept quiet because Jesus knew their thoughts. He was at a distance but comprehended their thoughts. Now He is quite a distance away in another realm but He still knows our thoughts! Distance is no barrier to thoughts.

Not only do demons transmit thoughts, but so do demonic people. Jesus was special for He had overcame the Devil Himself, albeit because of that, the Pharisees may have thought Him to be the Devil.

Jesus was accused of being Beelzebub himself, ‘the Lord of the Flies.” There are many thoughts about the meaning of that, but put it together with “Prince of the Power of the Air,’ then it becomes clear that Beelzebub, the Devil, is the master of the air, perhaps implying that the transmission of thoughts are under his control, not real flies, but the transmission of the thoughts of the wicked.  

Because Jesus was a Divine Being, and not of this world, audible language was not necessary for Him to understand. He understood thoughts by some miraculous divine telepathy. Since demons are not of this world, then their messenger ‘language’ is transmitted by thoughts as well.

So, how did the Devil — the Serpent — get into the Garden of God? Through the minds of the two human beings. That “Serpent’ was not necessarily a being per se, but an evil mental image (a Nahas) that corresponds to the good invisible Image of God (a Selem).

If the Word got into Adam when he was created, as that image was a ‘phantom’ (Strong 2006), then the ‘shadow’ (darkness) that got into Adam and Eve was an anti-image — evil thoughts. Hence, the ‘Serpent’ was not a real snake but cunningness itself. That implies that the Devil got into the minds of Adam and Eve, and that demons get into the minds of innocent Christians.

So, no wonder the minds of Christians require the helmet of safety provided by God!

And no wonder that Calvary is the place of the cranium, the bone that protects the brain and shields the mind from wicked thoughts!

No wonder that rebirth is fully persuaded to be a Christian and afterward they are persuaded to continue in the grace of God (Acts 13:43).

Our minds hide the enemy and indeed, I have found the enemy, and he is us.




 

 



[1] Soteria can mean either ‘salvation’ or ‘safety.’ Right doctrine the way I understand it is ‘safety.’

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