DCW -Spiritual Warfare II

Good morning One River,

We’ve moved through our series on the Divine Council Worldview. We’ve seen that Yahweh was at least as creative in His fabrication of the Heavens as He was during His fabrication of Earth. Supernatural creatures called Elohim abound. At one point Deuteronomy 32 tells us that after the fall of Babel, He appointed some of these Elohim to rule over the nations of the earth.

This created another supernatural revolution. Some of these elohim took it upon themselves to turn the humans under their care to worship themselves instead of Yahweh.

This of course did not go well for us.

Last week we looked at an introduction to how spiritual warfare works, in light of the Divine Council Worldview. I spoke about the Macro and Micro understanding of spiritual warfare. We looked at how Jesus took back control of this appointment with his death and resurrection. The Macro piece of this equation is the completing work of Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross. From that point on and for all time, it is Jesus who reigns supreme. It’s Jesus that rules the nations of this earth.

This leaves us in the position we’ve come to know as the “already, not yet”. Jesus is in charge. Through no action or participation of humanity. Jesus wrestled away power from the wicked elohim and he alone is appointed by Yahweh to rule. However, the elohim running around the earth are not gone. They have no formal control, but they haven’t been banished to Hell or even from the Earth. They’re still running around here.

They know the fate that awaits them. It’s death.

Psalm 82:6–7 tells us;

6 “I said, ‘You are “gods”;

you are all sons of the Most High.’

7 But you will die like mere mortals;

you will fall like every other ruler.”

This is what they have to look forward to. Yahweh will take their immortality and destroy them.

So, what can they do? What is their plan of action? We looked at this a little last week. But the answer is simple. They know they’re done. They know destruction awaits. Their only plan now is to cause as much destruction and mayhem as possible. They want to fight off heavenly judgement for as long as they can. And they want to take as many of us as possible in the process. Right now, they are literally fighting for their mere survival. They are acutely aware of the fact that the war is over. They lost.

This brings us to the micro spiritual warfare part of this conversation. Jesus spent a good portion of his earthly life preparing us for this eventuality. This was absolutely not something that was unforeseen. Jesus knew that the wicked powers would not simply lay down and accept their fate. He knew they would fight back, and their chief target would be us.

Jesus started laying the groundwork for us to follow very early on in his ministry. Luke 10 is a good place to start. It’s not the first demonic encounter in scripture but it’s more well rounded than you may have noticed at first glance.

Luke 10:1–20 (NIV)

Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two

10 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. (Let’s start here. This is “the seventy or seventy-two depending on your translation. I spoke about that last time. But it’s important to note here that this is not the boys. This is not the Apostles. This is just random followers of Jesus, and they have been given these powers by the Spirit.”

2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. (He’s telling them, I’m sending you into unfriendly, even enemy territory, and you will not know.)

5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. (The vocabulary of ‘your peace’ is used here. But it’s the power of the HS. It’s the Spirits peace that blesses a location and its occupants not us.)

8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. (This is supernatural warfare. This is judgement on a location being pronounced. We’ll get into this more later.)

13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.

16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (This is pretty harsh and condemning language from the LORD.)

17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

I went over part of this a few weeks ago. I won’t rehash the part about Satan. But here we see the followers come back rejoicing and talking about how they were able to cast out Demons. Not by their own power, but by the name of Jesus.

Jesus says woe there. Wait a minute. Don’t rejoice in the fact that demons submit to you in my name. But that you have life eternal, as your names are written in the Book of Life.

This is a side note, but what’s the implication there? Not everyone has eternal life. Not everyone’s name is written in the Book of Life. – again, side point.

Ok, so, what do we notice here? What was their original mission here?

Go and tell everyone that “The kingdom of God has come near!” This is, for lack of a better term, the evangelistic mission. Tell everyone I’m coming. They were set out to announce that Jesus was, in this case physically and geographically, on his way.

The subtext tells us that he prepared them in advance for this work. He knew, even if they did not, that Spiritual warfare would be necessary for this mission.

Jesus second to last sentence in this section. “I have given to you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”

They didn’t know this when they left. But they sure did when they returned.

This is such a big issue for Christians that Jesus gave us the power before his death and resurrection. It’s amazing to me that we still have debates about spiritual warfare and the necessity of it. But more on that later.

I’m going back to my roots for a bit here. Because, for all the exploration and denial over the last 500 years. The Catholic church still has, in my opinion, one of the most fleshed out understandings of Demonic possession.

They’ve boiled it down to four categories.

Demonic possession: A demon using someone's body as their own. This is rare.

Demonic infestation: The presence of evil in a location (such as a haunted house) or an object (such as a voodoo doll or ouija board).

Demonic vexation: Physical attacks on a person's body, such as cuts, bite marks or bruises.

Demonic obsession: Demonic attacks on someone's mind. This can be the devil trying to get inside someone's head so everything they are thinking or experiencing is being filtered through the presences of the demonic.

We’re going to spend some time working through these. But this week we’ll just take a quick look. Some of these may be terms you’re not familiar with and I think it’s helpful to separate out these conditions instead of lumping everything into the category of “Demonic Possession” which is really not an accurate term in the original language at all.

In most languages the term is “the person possesses a demon. Not that a person is demonically possessed. It puts the ownership on the Human, not the other way around. We invite the demonic in. We give them a foothold. Not the other way around.

Ephesians 4:26–27 (NIV)

26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.

Back to the list -

We’re going to skip “Possession” for now and circle back to it later.

Demonic infestation is the belief that a location or an artifact is under the influence of demonic control. Now I personally have heard a lot of people over the years say this is nonsense. Locations and objects cannot be under demonic control. But I want us to think about this for a minute. The term demonic infestation does not appear in scripture. But the concept may not be quite as far off as we think. What would be the inverse of a demonic location? How about a Holy place? Does scripture say anything about Holy Places? Sure, everywhere.

Matthew 4:5 (NIV)

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

Jerusalem is almost always referred to as a Holy City or a Holy place. If this is so, then isn’t it likely that the inverse also exists. We recently spent a few weeks working on the location of Mt. Hermon. The Jews saw this as an unholy place. They avoided it at all cost. It was the site of much demonic and devil worship. It was listed in their annals as an unclean place. This, to me, seems like an excellent example as a place where the presence of evil dwells.

This is anecdotal, but I think I’ve said before, Charise and I were able to visit Israel many years ago. One of the places we visited was the uncovered site of a Canaanite Altar. In that location we could still see the 8k year old remains of babies sacrificed to Ba’al. To that day, the place still feels evil. Most of us have probably read a book or seen a movie that has some type of haunted or evil house. Even though most of the stories are factitious the origins of the evil are always the same. That place is under the influence of demons because some great atrocity took place there.

We can make places Holy by calling for God’s presence, with prayer and dedication. It stands to reason that we could make some place, or something demonically infested by the inverse mechanism.

The next one on the list is demonic vexation. This is where a person receives physical wounds from a demonic force; cuts, bruises and the like.

Mark 9:16–27 (NIV)

16 “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.

17 A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”

19 “You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”

“From childhood,” he answered. 22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”

23 “ ‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”

24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”

26 The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.

We see here this demon actually has a measure of control over this boy. He can and does try and drown him and throw him in fire “to kill him”. It’s not always that dramatic. Sometimes it just leaves scratches or bruises. But the Demonic, through vexation, can physically harm us.

Somewhere floating around I have a picture from my arm after I was working a deliverance and about an hour later my arm started to hurt. I looked down and had a huge scratch on it.

Again, this goes back to the evil “powers and principalities”. Jesus came, they lost. What are they going to do now? The answer is mess with us. Keep fighting and keep surviving.

The next on our list is demonic obsession.

I think we often think of obsession in the more modern sense. Like being obsessed with a romantic partner or singer or something of that nature.

In this case it’s more clinical. Obsession is a singular or series of thoughts, visions, or urges that continue to play in one’s mind with no relief.

There is no case in scripture that uses this language of obsession. But I have one I’d like to place as a contender.

Luke 22:1–6 (NIV)

Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus

22 Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, 2 and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. 3 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. 4 And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. 5 They were delighted and agreed to give him money. 6 He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.

Somehow Judas convinces himself (after giving Satan a foothold) to betray Jesus. Then his solution is suicide. I think both of these acts require obsession. But even if you want to argue the first one. I think suicide is always an obsession. In order to work ourselves into the situation where we see things bad enough for self-death, I think we need a string of obsessive thoughts.

Lastly, and perhaps most familiar is Demonic Possession. I will stress that this is rare. But full on possession happens when a spirit overpowers the human and forces them to physically act and speak. Sometimes in languages unknown to the person and often forces the person to perform acts they would not commit on their own.

Luke 8:26–33 (NIV)

Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man

26 They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” 29 For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.

30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.

32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. 33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

In this example, the possessed person was running around naked. He was covered in broken chains from previous breaks where he broke away from being chained up by townspeople. This would have required superhuman strength. Perhaps the clearest example of possession here is when Jesus asks his name. The response is Legion. This man was so afflicted that upon the request of his name, the demons actually answered Christ.

We’ve just looked at a few examples of the different types of demonic afflictions. We’re going to spend the next few weeks fleshing this out and looking at our ability to combat these stages. Demons can and do affect everyone. Your faith, your status under the Christian banner do not protect you from demons or demonic encounters. All that evil needs is a foothold in your life.

We’ll continue in a few weeks. Questions?