The Bible tells us of an unseen world where angels serve the saints in obedience to God and where demons seek to destroy God’s work in league with the devil. Jesus encountered many people who were under the control of demons in various ways and to varying degrees. These evil forces attacked men, women, and children physically, mentally, and spiritually.
One such attack against a boy brought left him suffering terribly with seizures and would often through him into the fire and into the water (Matthew 17:15). Another account has a man living among the tombs, unclothed, out of his mind, always screaming and cutting himself with stones (Mark 5). We also read where Jesus attributes to Satan’s work a woman who for 18 years was bent over and could not straighten herself (Luke 13:10-16).
Demons are further credited with such activity as promoting false teachings and false religions that deny Jesus, blinding people to the gospel and keeping them in bondage to sinful desires, hindering Christians from effective witness, instilling a spirit of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, tempting people to sin, influencing even Peter (!) to seek the things of men rather than the things of God, and more.
Friend, I do not hesitate to say today that demons still maintain much influence in our world. Behind the lies, the pride, the doubts, the fears, the guilt, the greed, the envy, the slander, the confusion, the hatred, and the chaos in our culture you will find demonic forces seeking to destroy God’s good, righteous, and just ways.
How else would you explain a deranged kid walking into his school and shooting people? How else would you explain an insane segment of our society hell-bent on making sure a woman can legally sacrifice her unborn child at any time until the moment of birth? How else would you explain terrorists hijacking planes and flying them into buildings? How else would you explain why in the U.S. alone there are on average 130 people who commit suicide every day, and another 3,780 who attempt to do so?
How else would you explain how people can harbor hatred for their fellow human beings simply because their skin is a lighter or darker color?
How else would you explain why pornography has become a global industry worth over $100 billion? How else do you explain this generation’s fascination with the immorality of homosexuality? How else would you explain the absurdity of gender fluidity or identity or whatever it’s called – especially when we’re telling boys and girls that they can choose their gender, and then give them hormone blockers and perform “sex-change” surgeries on them?
Jesus describes Satan as the “father of lies” (John 8:44) and a thief who “comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). Peter writes, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
But I want you to know for certain that Jesus has absolute authority and power over the forces of darkness. He has already dealt the decisive blow at Calvary and by His resurrection victory. And one day soon He will finally judge Satan, his demons, and those names are not written in the book of life to an eternal torment in the lake of fire and sulfur (Revelation 20).
Christians do not have to live in fear of demons or the devil, nor yield to his influence or temptations. We have the authority of Christ to “Resist him, standing firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:9). And we share in the eternal victory of salvation through Jesus.
If you’re not following Jesus, let me urge you now to “turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that [you] might receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in [Jesus]” (Acts 26:18).
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