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.”
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’
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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