Derek Prince - Christians Can Have Demons That Need To Be Dealt With
This is an excerpt from: War In Heaven And Earth - Part 2
Now I want to turn to the example of Jesus' ministry in this particular aspect of deliverance from evil spirits, and I want to read from Mark chapter 1 a description of the beginning of Jesus' ministry beginning with verse 21. Mark 1:21. And they came to Capernaum; and on the sabbath he went straightway to the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Now there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. The Greek says 'in an unclean spirit'. And I want to point out that that man had probably attended the synagogue as a good religious Jew for many, many years. But it says, and he, and if you read it carefully it is not the man, but the spirit, And he shouted and said, "Leave us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus the Nazarene? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are, even the Holy One of God"!
Now it is a remarkable fact that the demon in the man immediately knew who Jesus was. It took His disciples about twelve months to discover what the demon already knew. So we are dealing with persons with supernatural knowledge. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Shut up! [Greek says: be muzzled] Get out of him"! Now Jesus did not speak to the man. He spoke to the demon in the man. It's very important to see that. There comes a point where we don't have to deal with people anymore. We are dealing with the demons in people, whether they are in us or in other people. And the unclean spirit convulsed him and went out of him crying with a loud voice!
You see, you have two people. He, the demon, went out of him, out of the man. So there was more than one person here. There was the man and there was the person (or the demon or the evil spirit) in the man. And Jesus did not deal with the man. He dealt with the demon in the man and He was not embarrassed. If that kind of behavior happened in some churches, including Pentecostals, do you know what they would do? They would take the man out of the service and put him in the basement and one of the deacons would stay with him. And I'm not theorizing. I've seen this happen. Thank goodness we don't have to take the man off duty. We need to get the demon out of the man and let the man stay in the church. Then it says: And they were all amazed, so that they asked one another, "What is this? What new doctrine is this, that He also commands the unclean spirits with authority, and they obey Him"? And the rumor about Him immediately spread throughout all the region of Galilee.
I want to point out that Jesus was not only first recognized here as the Son of God or the Messiah. What first attracted people to Him was that He had the power to deal with demons and that caused His reputation to spread throughout that area. And then we read a little further in verses 32 to 34. Now when it was evening and the sun went down, they brought to Him all who were ill and those who were possessed by demons. Well demon-possessed is a bad translation and I'm really mad at the NIV that in many ways has modernized English but that they've gone back to this old-fashioned religious language, demon-possessed. And I tell you why I object: because the word suggests possessed property. If you are possessed by demons, then you are owned by a demon. Well, I don't believe that a born-again, sincere Christian can be owned by a demon.
I do not believe that a sincere, born-again Christian can possess demons. But the Greek word used can easily and should be translated as demonized. And I do believe that many born-again Christians are still demonized. That is, there are areas in their personality where the Holy Spirit is not yet in full control. There is a demon that must be dealt with and Jesus did. "They brought to Him all those who were ill and those who were demonized." And notice, they didn't really come for deliverance, they came for healing. But in receiving healing, many of them needed deliverance from demons. And then it goes on: And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons, and He did not permit the demons to speak [or say] because they knew Him. You see, the demons all knew who Jesus was. "And He cast out many demons."
How many of you have cast out many demons? I'm not asking for a demonstration, I just want you... How far are we on the standard of Jesus? How far are we below the standard and example of Jesus? You say, "Well, they weren't Christians." That's true. They were Jews. But actually they basically lived by the law of Moses and in most cases they lived a much more righteous life than most people in the United States today. The penalty for adultery was death. If that penalty were imposed on the American people today, we would immediately lose about a quarter of our people. Is that right? I'm not exaggerating, am I? So don't say, Well, those were people who didn't know justice. Many people say, "Well, I'm sure there are people who need to be freed from demons, but they're in prisons or they're in insane asylums." That is not true. Demons can be very comfortable in many churches.