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Demons want to and can possess people. It is apparent from Scripture that evil spirits want to possess bodies through which they can carry out their wicked activities.
Bible scholars have categorized two levels of demonic impact upon people:
- Demonic oppression: mild to severe harassment by one or more evil spirits as a result of the opening of some of the gateways to satanic influence.
- Demonic possession: The condition in which one or more evil spirits actually inhabit the body of a person, taking control of it at will and expressing his (or their) evil personality through the faculties of that human body.
- Matthew 12:43-45, as quoted previously, is a classic description of demonic possession: note especially the phrase “they enter in and dwell there.”
- Other Scriptures that describe such possession: Matthew 10:1: “And when (Jesus) had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out.”
Demons possessing the Gadarene demoniac of Mark 5 did not want to be disembodied. They begged to be allowed by Jesus to enter a herd of swine. Other activities that are characteristic of demons include:
- Demons can prophesy.
- The Bible gives several examples of this deceptive demonic activity, such as the account of the demonized fortune-teller
- First Kings, the prophet Micaiah, speaking for the Lord, spoke against the false prophets who had predicted success for the wicked king of Israel: I Kings 22:21-22: “. . . there came forth a spirit . . . and said . . . I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.”
- Demons seek the worship of people – such as Obama, though it is forbidden by God. Worship of Satan and demons is grotesque, often involving bizarre idolatry, vile ritualism and human sacrifice-even child sacrifices.
- Leviticus 17:7: “And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils.”
- Psalm 106: 37-38: “Yea, they sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan.”
- Revelation 9:20: “And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver and brass, and stone, and of wood.”
Satan and his hosts are a defeated army-legally defeated; when Christ died and rose again, He sealed His victory over the enemy.
He “led captivity captive,” (Ephesians 4:80).
Though the sentence was passed on Satan at the cross of Christ and at the empty tomb, it has not yet been executed. However it will be, as the prophetic Scriptures make abundantly evident.
“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”(Rev. 20:10)