2011 A.D.:  Don't Be Caught By Surprise - Demons Scream When Evicted!!

  Paul and Silas endured many hardships when going about teaching and preaching about Jesus, healing and casting out demons.  They were whipped, imprisoned, there were riots against them.  But they were given great deliverances by God also, such as having earthquakes destroy prisons where they were kept causing their jailers to seek Christ.  Acts 16.

  Jesus has authority over the most powerful of demons.  In the case of the Gadarene demoniac, (Mark chap 5) an especially powerful case of demon possession, Jesus faced a man inhabited with a 'legion' of demons.   Yet they merely asked if Jesus would send them into a herd of hogs rather than sending them out into the wilderness.  This Jesus granted them, but when the demons entered the herd of hogs, the hogs ran down the cliff into the Sea of Galilee and drowned.  So, in the end, the demons had no place to go.  I've read that ancient Jewish beliefs held that a demon spirit must have a host, or it dies rather quickly.  There was even a maximum distance associated with how far a cast out demon could usually travel before it perished.

  When Jesus commanded demons to leave people's body during his three-and-a-half-year ministry, the demons obeyed.  In every case they obeyed.  Jesus is immeasurably higher in heavenly pedigree than demons.  His authority was unquestioned, even by demons.  But....even when it was Jesus casting them out, they didn't leave peacefully.  They threw down their convulsing victims in many cases, shrieking as they left.

  This is just how it is with demons.  They are evil.  They do not admit their error or trespass, and meekly leave, sorry for their misdeeds.  They protest loudly, as if they have been wronged.  They pretend that it is they who have been victimized, rather than being the victimizer.  They show their utter disregard for the body they have been inhabiting - throwing it down as they leave.  These are the hall marks of demon possession and offer an insight into the mind of demons - not that we want much of that.

  In fact, in at least one case in the Bible, the seven sons of a Jewish priest named Sceva would try to help a demon possessed person by driving out their demon - only to find that all demons were not created equal.  Some demons, that will leave in an instant when Jesus commands them to, will wage a fierce battle against mere men that try to make them leave the victim that they reside within.  In this case, these Jewish men, who had previously driven out demons, used Jesus's name to try to drive a particularly difficult demon out of a person.  They said, "In the name of Jesus who Paul preaches, I command you to come out."  This time the demon opened the man's mouth and spoke:  "Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?"  Then the man inhabited by the demon jumped on them and overpowered them all.  They fled naked and bleeding from their battle with the demon.  Act 19: 13-16.

  Unlike Jesus, who is 'no respecter of persons' as the Bible says, a demon recognizes levels of spiritual authority.  And if you don't come in the power of He who spiritually outranks the demon, guess what...it's not leaving!

  Paul's name gained a lot of credibility due to this event in the region of Ephesus where it occurred.  Those dangerous demons knew about Paul! 

  So, what is the lesson for us?  Well, we can all draw our own lessons from this part of scripture, and this is just my opinion.  But one lesson we could draw is this:  Don't be easily discouraged or quit doing what you're doing if you get a lot of unexpected opposition from someone, some religion, some political party that seems clearly in the wrong, yet won't admit it.  Don't be discouraged by some entity which in fact claims that it is you that is all messed up in your thinking for questioning or opposing what they are doing....even when it is fairly obvious that their behavior is very wrong indeed.  There may be a demon or two involved in the situation. 

  Satan is a liar and the father of liars.  So said Jesus, who does not lie.  Satan's demons are the same - they are in his army; they are bent on furthering his agenda.

  So, if you, as a Christian following God and Jesus's teachings, suddenly face a fire storm of opposition from a person or a group that you are shining some light on, don't shrink back.  You may see this unexpected riot of opposition and say to yourself: "If I was objecting that strenuously to someone, it would only be if I had no doubt in my mind that they were in the wrong completely."  And that might make you draw back and reconsider.  But know this:  Demonic forces do not try to uphold righteousness.  They try to deliver victories to their dark master, Satan.

  They may claim any Christian tenant that furthers their aims, but do not feel bound to Christian tenants whatsoever when abandoning them will further their agenda.  Wolves can be in among the flock, in sheep's clothing.  Even the Apostles admitted this - it was true even in their early day. 

  To make a long story short, know that the Bible assures us that we are in a battle of spiritual kingdoms.  Our eyes see this physical world.  Our ears hear the daily news of this physical world.  But the war and battles that we are in are spiritual.  If you care nothing about either God or Satan you are effectively only a spectator to a war that cannot be physically seen anyway.  You can opt out of active duty in the war if you wish, but you cannot opt out of the judgement, and Jesus is the judge.  That may not seem fair to the people that don't want to play at all, but all I can say about that is this:  like it or not, we were all made by God and Jesus for a purpose, and all have responsibilities to our Maker, who loves us as His children.  And we all were born into a war zone; Earth is a spiritual war zone.

  Enter the battle on the side of the kingdom of God, by offering yourself as a servant to Jesus to serve Him however He wishes in this war between kingdoms, and suddenly your old world will no longer make sense.   

  You will come under assault, so to speak, and it is not being theatrical to say so.  You will be held to account not only for real and actual misdeeds from your past, but also you may be accused of things that you did not even do.  You will be offered strange temptations seemingly from out of nowhere.  You will lose friends that you thought were good ones, and you might have problems even with those you love in your family.  If you go to church, or begin going to church, you may quite likely be sort of attacked in various unfair seeming ways by people that attend that church.  It is so common of a phenomenon that if you listen to the testimonies of people that become born again, it is a trial almost universally endured. 

  Why?  Because you deserve it.  You have been a sinner.  And because Jesus (who actually was pure and good) underwent this same experience for you, except worse, so why should you not take your turn?  And because new soldiers need to not only be trained but tested.  When you became born again and offered yourself up to Jesus, you entered 'Kingdom of Heaven Boot Camp'.  An adversary that has had years to learn your sinful episodes, your sinful proclivities, your fears, your dependencies and your weaknesses is allowed to take their cracks at you.  They are allowed to deal out painful blows to you.  You are given some battle scars, just as your brothers and sisters in Christ before you received, and your brothers and sisters after you will receive.  You'll receive spiritual wounds and scars which our Lord received in vastly greater measure than you ever will, though He deserved not a single one, and which you, in truth, may deserve in great number.  Most reborn Christians have probably been through more of this than me; it's something you may as well just expect.

  If you are a new Christian, the old man or woman was lowered beneath the water, and a new man or woman was raised up out of it.  Maybe you felt a deep spiritual experience.  Maybe you just felt wet.  But either way, the event was recorded in heaven.  You have entered the war, and on the side of Heaven.  You are only a New Recruit.  You are to be shoved around and abused for a while (how long is God's business - He knows what you need to endure, and the areas in your makeup that need to mature, or toughen up, or be sand blasted away.) 

  But even as a New Recruit, and especially later, your new job is to maintain Jesus's light shining where it already shines (including inside of you) and to shine Christ's light into the strongholds of demons, the places that demons have formerly called their own.  This the demons will not appreciate, and they can certainly let you know that quite clearly.  They have some power.  They are powerful compared to you, but not as powerful as the light that you hold within you now.  They know this, and shudder - they don't fear you, but they fear the light of Christ.  

  But maybe they can attack you and make you flee.  Maybe they can make you afraid so that you run away, fleeing this terrible new war that you truly can't even quite see with your eyes.  If so, they have won a battle, so be warned - they will try to make you flee.  That has been the common experience of those who tried to do work for God and Jesus:  demonic forces will 'attack' you and your life, hoping you will fold and surrender, or better yet, flee the battleground.

  But as the Bible tells us - we are soldiers in a war that has already been won.  It was won not by the power of man, but by the sacrifice of Jesus.  Any given soldier among us may suffer much, and perhaps lose much - maybe even lose all (all that is of this Earth.)  But Jesus has already purchased our eternal life in Heaven if we follow Him in this life.  Demons have no such future.  They have already lost the war, no matter what few battles they may win before the end of it comes.

  And so they shriek, these demons, when evicted, knowing their time is short.  You hear it when an out of control child is told to obey the rules or move out.  You may hear it in your own thoughts, or coming out of your own mouth, when you yourself are made to face an unpleasant truth about yourself, when God sticks your nose in your own pile of 'bad behavior', in your own sin.  You will hear it when someone tries to rid your nation of one or another outrageous abuse of government.  You will hear it at church if someone tries to drag an 'off the leash' church back to the Bible.  You will hear it when a lazy person is cut off from their source of 'effort free' existence.  You will hear it as a person is torn away from a drug or substance to which they are addicted.

  Demons scream when beaten.  They protest that it is they that have been mistreated.  If you ask them to explain their logic for that, they say non-sensical things for a while, and finally give up and just start screaming at you with a countenance full of anger and hate, the countenance of who ever it is they are inhabiting.  Demons protest greatly when they're being driven away.  We just have to get used to it, because they are to be driven away at every opportunity, and it is Christians that are the porters of the spiritual power that can do that...... the power of God the Father, Jesus His Son and our Savior, and the power of the Holy Spirit of God.  These aspects of God dwell in a Christian and can send fear into the hearts of any demon, though the Christian that bears them around in this world is nothing but a willing though unworthy vessel of that Holy Power.