Creflo Dollar - The Reality of Satan and Demons - Part 2
Tonight, we're gonna talk about, just the manifestation of demon forces. People don't believe in them. Some don't even know how to recognize them, and if we have authority over demons, we gotta recognize them. So there are different ways that Satan and his demons can inflict harm on people, and we're gonna look at those different ways that Satan and demons inflict harm on people. So the first way we're gonna look, at number one, if y'all don't mind, let's just dive into it. Number one: possessing people to cause them physical and spiritual harm. Demonic spirits, or the Bible refers to it as unclean spirits, will possess people to cause them physical and spiritual harm.
Now we established last week, a born again Christian cannot be demonically possessed, but they can be oppressed or influenced. And that's the part that even Christian people have to be aware of when you are being influenced or oppressed by demonic forces. But Satan wants to inflict harm on people. He wants to possess people that are not born again, that don't know Jesus as Lord of their life, and he wants to cause physical and spiritual harm. Let me give you some illustrations of this. Matthew chapter 12 and verse 22 in the Amplified. Matthew chapter 12 and 22 in the Amplified, and notice the harm that these demons or unclean spirits want to cause.
Now, unclean spirits are not responsible for a lot of physical and spiritual things, but they are responsible for a great deal of it. They're not responsible, excuse me, for all, but they are for a great deal. So, we need to, as Christians, know how to discern the difference. Verse 22 says: "Then a blind and dumb man under the power of a demon was brought to Jesus, and he cured him so that the blind and the dumb man both spoke and saw". And so here you see, as a result of the power of demons or unclean spirits, it caused this man to be blind and it's caused this man to be dumb. You'll find out that one of the major objectives of demonic spirits is in the area of sickness and disease. Not all sickness, not all disease, but a great deal of it, and a lot of Christians just don't even have a clue. They just think it's just sickness and disease caused by nothing and that's just not true. But you see here clearly in Matthew 12:22, that this guy was blind and dumb because he was under the power of a demon.
Well, also look at Mark chapter 5 and verse 1. I wanna take some time to really look at this, and so we wanna go through it. It's kind of long, but I wanna look at verse 1 through 20, and just by reading this, you'll discover a whole lot. Mark chapter 5 and verses 1 through 20. If you're there, say amen. All right, now notice this. He says: "And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship," now he's referring to Jesus here. "When he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit". So Jesus now encounters this man who has this unclean spirit or this demon spirit, and in verse 3: "Who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains".
So you see demonic spirits producing supernatural strength through this one guy. And, I mean, I've seen this before. I was at a psychiatric institute where this little bitty woman picked up these big old guards and threw them across the room. And I'm thinking, I know who you are, this ain't happening here. And verse 4 says: "Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him". So the Bible's making it very clear what happens when someone is possessed with an unclean spirit, and verse 5: "And always, night and day, this possessed guy was in the mountain and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones".
Look at the harm that's being caused here. He's crying and he's cutting himself with stones. Verse 6, "But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped him and cried with a loud voice and said, 'What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God?'" See, every demon knows Jesus. And that's why I'm teaching this 'cause every demon needs to know you. Amen. And, so this is strange. The demon spoke through this man said: "I adjure thee by God". Such an idiot. "I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not". So he was expecting torment. And, "for he said unto him," Jesus said unto him, "'Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.'" Now, you don't see all the stuff you see folk, you know, come out in the Jesus, screaming. No, Jesus just, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit". "And he asked him," he said, "'What is your name?' And he answered, saying, 'My name is Legion: for we are many.'"
So there's just not one, there are legions of demons. Tonight I'm gonna show you what happens when you cast a demon out. Where did they go? You know. And he says, "And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto the mountain a great herd of swine feeding". You'll find out it was about 2000. "And all the devils besought him, saying, 'Send us into the swine that we may enter into them.'" I mean, they probably rather go anywhere than back to hell. "And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. And they that fed the swine fled," I guess so, "and told it in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus, and they see," the guy that Jesus just got delivered.
They, "See him that was possessed with the devil and the one that had the legions. They saw him sitting and clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid". Because they hadn't seen that in a while. They've seen the guy in the state of under demonic possession, and then they showed up, and there's a man sitting and he is clothed and he's in his right mind. Say right mind. So under the influence of demonic spirits, you're not gonna be in your right mind. That's why I say you see a lot of things going on right now, mass shootings and stuff like that. People that are not in their right mind may be under some type of demonic influence, but you tell the world that, they're not paying no attention to it.
So that's one sign when a person's not in their right mind, all right? And he says: "And they had saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. And when he was come into the ship, he had been possessed with the devil prayed Jesus that he might be with him". So, he wanted to be with Jesus, and you can understand that. You showed up and delivered me. You showed up and I can now sit and I can be clothed and I can be in my right mind. Wherever you go, I wanna go with you. Glory be to God. How many of you know, when Jesus delivers you, you wanna be with Jesus, amen. But now watch this very interesting request in verse 19, he said: "Howbeit Jesus suffered him not". Why? "But saith unto him," here's what I need you to do. "'Go home to your friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee".
So Jesus was like, I got something better I need you to do. You wanna know a better way to serve me? Tell everybody, go and publish it all in your home about how you were possessed with legions but you encountered me, and I showed compassion on you. This guy was so committed to it. Look at his accomplishment in verse 20. "And he departed, and he began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him; and all men did marvel". Now, if you'll keep reading down, you see Jesus returning back to the same place, and there were lots of people ready that were there, he could hardly get out of the boat. They were pressing against him to try to get to him, and because they had heard what he did for this possessed guy. I tell you what, whatever that guy's name was, he did a good job of soul winning because when Jesus came back, it was packed, praise God. Amen.
When was the last time you told somebody about the great things that the Lord has done for you? Amen. Praise God. Tell somebody, testify. So here you clearly see, demon possession, the mad man of Gadarene. You see the demon, but you see what they were trying to do in causing physical harm. But what about spiritual harm? Look at Luke chapter 22 and verse 3 through 4. Luke chapter 22, verses 3 through 4. This is real, whether you believe it or not, it exists, and there may have been some influence in your life, so you got to know this. You need to know, so you can deal with the devil. Even when Peter said to Jesus, you don't have to die on the cross, Jesus turned and says, "Satan, I rebuke you". Because he says that's not the spirit of God that would say that. That's the spirit of the devil that would say that because God knows I gotta come and die for my people.
All right. So now look at this. He says, verse 3 and 4, "Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot". So you wonder why Judas betrayed Jesus. A devil entered in. Satan entered into Judas. If you ever wonder why you do certain things, and I'm not saying you got a devil all the time. I mean, don't get that attitude. Every time you see somebody doing something wrong, that's a devil. No, no, no. That's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying that it is sometimes. He says: "Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of twelve". Now what happened after Satan entered into him? "And he went his way, and communed with the chief priest and the captains, how he might betray him unto them," with some exchange of money. And, you know the story, ended up hanging himself and you know, the word, it was better for you not to be born, but this is the, Satan wants to see if he can destroy you and cause harm spiritually to you. And he caused great harm there.
Now he's trying to do the same thing today. How much harm can he cause spiritually to you? What can he do to cause some harm spiritually to you? And that's why it's so important to get your emotions under control and not allow your emotions to govern your life, but you make sure that you are in charge of your negative emotions. All right, let's look at the second thing here. Second way that Satan and his demons can inflict harm upon people.
Number two. By blinding the minds of unbelievers. Now this is interesting. There's no way he wants to make it easy for us to win souls for the kingdom. So by blinding the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel. That's what he wants to do. That's, you know, you wanna know what's going on in the world right now? A bunch of blind people. So they won't see the light of the gospel.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4:4. Let's look at it in the King James and the Amplified. You're familiar with this scripture, but this is the assignment of the day for him. We do not want these unsaved people at World Changers. We do not want them listening to anybody that preaches the Word, and if they do, we wanna blind them so much that they can't even see it. All right, look at verse 4. "In whom the god," small g, "of this world". He was crowned small g god, little god, because of the authority that was given by Adam over to him in the garden. "In whom the god of this world hath blinded," hath already blinded, "the minds of them which believe not, so that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them".
Now, this is really weird, what I'm about to say. It's not weird at all to you who will hear this, but when you listen to this scripture, you're thinking about just, you know, the Bible says, "Blinded the minds of them which believe not". Believe not what? The gospel. "So that the light of the gospel won't come in". I was looking at this one day, God said to me, he said, it's not necessarily folks who are not saved. These are religious people, as well, who won't hear the gospel because their tradition has made the Word of God of no effect. And so the more and more, like, I try to preach the gospel of grace, the more and more it's being resisted. He said demons can also have an influence, so they won't hear the finished works of Jesus Christ and this gospel of Jesus. And I really believe that, I believe that's a lot of truth into that.
Number three. Number three. Another way that Satan and his demons can inflict harm on people. By deceiving people, by disguising themselves as servants of righteousness. By deceiving people and disguising themselves as servants of righteousness. If you go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 14 through 15, let's, for the sake of time, go to the Amplified. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 14 through 15. Satan will deceive people by disguising themselves as servants of righteousness. In other words, you got to know the devil when he show up, you know. You got to know him.
Look at 14 to 15, he says: "And it is no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light". So he says false teachers and false prophets shouldn't be a mystery. He says: "So it is not surprising if his servants also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. [But] their end will correspond with their deeds". God says, I got this. The pulpit is not a place to play, and if you have allowed yourself to be demonically influenced by demons, that is not a place, you talk about somebody can die quick. That is not a place to play, because you're dealing with something precious to God, and that's his people.
All right. Number four. Promoting false doctrine. That's what demonic possession is designed to do, to promote some false doctrine. There are people who really, really believe it, but it's just really, really not true. Here's a way to keep yourself straight. Jesus is the only way. I don't care what you read, dead scrolls, sea scrolls. You know, those scrolls. I don't care what you read. I don't care what you found. I don't care what's going on. I don't care what they found. I don't care what they... Jesus, you stay there, stay there with Jesus. Okay, so, see, he's the way, stay with Jesus. You remember on the mountain of transfiguration, they saw Moses, they saw Elijah, and they saw Jesus, and God told them, Elijah disappeared, Moses disappeared, and that angel said, hear him. Don't pay attention to nobody else.
You know, thank God for Moses, thank God for Elijah, he said, but listen to him, he the one. He's the way, the truth, the life. He's the way in the way out. No man can come to the father except by him. But you will see a lot of demonic influence in trying to bring up other doctrines, and all of them are trying to replace the only way. That's demonic. And that will do great harm. 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 1 through 3. Demons like to promote false doctrines. They like to promote false doctrine. All year long, we've been focusing on back to the basics. Get into the Word. Just don't say that, find it in the book. Don't just say that, where is it? How do you know that? Where did that come from? 'Cause if you're not careful, you'll start talking to saved people who'll start saying stuff talking about it's revelation. That ain't no revelation, that's a default. That's wrong. Okay? Find it in the Bible.
1 Timothy chapter 4, 1 and through. "Well, the Bible was written by man". See, that's that demon, trying to get you to, "Bible was written by a man". Come here, boy, you got a devil in you. Some of you, how many remember Ernest Angley. "I'll cast a devil out of ya". Amen. All right, so 1 Timothy 4, verse 1 through 3. He says: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times," are we there? "Some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines that come from devils". So they're gonna be teachings, seducing spirits. They're gonna be very seductive. They're gonna be things that, you know, they really draw you in, you really like it, a lot of screaming and hollering and shouting, okay. But it may be of seducing spirits, and there may be doctrines of the devils.
Verse 2, he says, "They'll be speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron". He says, now here's what he says. Now there'll forbidding marriage. That's happening right now. There'll be forbidding marriage. "You don't need to be married. I don't care what the Bible says. You don't need to be married. It's just a piece of paper. You just need to live together. All right, do your thing". You look, the devil, there he is. Forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from meats. You know, respect, respect. Much respect to all vegetarians, but you eat what you eat, and I'm gonna eat what I'm gonna eat. 'Cause it's all blessed. Now, you can't take that too far. You gotta understand, don't be stupid now, all right. Sugar is highly inflammatory. Certain oils are bad for you. You gotta discern between all the GMO.
See, this was probably written before GMO came in. Genetically modified food probably wasn't included in this Bible. I don't do genetically modified food. I don't do genetically modified meats. When I eat meat, it's good, 100% grass-fed from the ground meat, all right. When I do eat vegetables, some of my vegetables are better than some of these vegetarian vegetables. I'm just saying discern the difference in the timing, genetically modified stuff and other stuff, and don't get, you know, don't get deep with that stuff.
Somebody asked me one time, well, does God mind you drinking wine? You know what I said? Ask God. "He said forbidding man to be married for commanding to abstain for meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth". Okay. So be careful even of the health movement. It could be doctrines of seducing spirits and stuff like that. What did the Bible say, okay?
Now, I can see somebody taking that. Well, you know, pastor said eat meat, and then you don't discern the difference between the meat that'll kill you... That's all I'm gonna say 'cause I'm not having a diet seminar. I will. I will. I'mma have something I'mma show you. I'mma show you the best mask you can wear is strong immunity. So, amen. Now, Revelation 16 and verse 14. Revelation 16 and verse 14. Look at the King James and the Amplified. Revelation 16 and verse 14. He says: "For they are the spirits of," this is 14. "For they are the spirits of the devils, working miracles". Stop. Devils working miracles? This is for the... oh yeah, of course. I mean, this is the thing that deceive people. When you don't know God, a miracle can deceive you into thinking it is him.