“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12 NIV
A couple of days ago you considered the question, “Do you believe demons are real?” How did you answer?
My suspicion is that most people these days would laugh at the idea, and they’d think I’m a little nuts for suggesting otherwise. Jesus believed in demons, so that’s good enough for me to believe in them, too.
Think about the reports making todays news: shooters killing kids in school; a country’s leader using chemical weapons against his own people; men and women with AIDS infecting as many people as possible through sexual contact; a driver deliberately crashing to kill their own family; doctors dismantling babies to murder them; etc.–the list doesn’t end! The modern answer is that the people committing such atrocities suffer from mental illness or became the way they are as a result of society, ad nauseam. Just perhaps they are inherently evil as a direct result of being controlled by demons. There is something to “the devil made me do it.”
If you’re a believer, the Holy Spirit alerts you to the influence of evil. I can’t even say a cuss word without feeling badly about doing so, and I follow-up by asking for forgiveness. On the other hand, one controlled by a demon has no control over his own actions.
Open your mind to the possibility–I suggest reality–that a spiritual world co-exists with our physical world. It’s biblical, and in light of everything that happens around us, it’s easy to accept and hard to deny.
Prayer: Dear God, may we be attuned to the direction of the Holy Spirit in alerting us to the presence of evil. Thank you for Jesus’s ultimate sacrifice for our failures when we do yield to sin, and for the redeeming grace that only He provides. Amen.