Derek Prince - How To Know If Demons Are At Work
This is an excerpt from: Basics of Deliverance: How to Identify The Enemy
I'm going to give you some general teaching on the nature of demons and we'll stick with the word demons and ways in which you can know if they're at work in you or in others. Of course, there's always the two gifts of discerning of spirits and the word of knowledge. But apart from that, in the supernatural realm there are many, many other combined indications which should alert us to the presence of demons either in ourselves or in others. You need to know, first of all, as I've said they are persons without bodies. You're dealing with persons disembodied persons who have a passionate craving to get into a body. You need to understand that. They are totally discontented outside of a body.
The kind of body they want is a human body, but rather than be disembodied they'll settle for a pig, or a dog or other animal. They do not want to be disembodied. That is torment for them. They have two main objectives assigned to them by Satan. Number one, to keep you from knowing Christ as Savior. But if they fail in that, their number two objective is to keep you from serving Christ effectively. You see that? If they've failed in number one they don't give up. They simply switch to number two. Now we need to distinguish between the flesh and demons. The flesh being the old carnal nature, the old man. Demons being persons that move in and occupy areas of your personality. I compare them this way: The flesh is the carcass the demons are the vultures that settle on the carcass. If there were no flesh, there would be no vultures. It's a very vivid picture.
If you've lived in a country where there are vultures you know when something is about to die, a little speck appears up in the sky and hovers there. Then there are three or four more and the nearer the animal on the earth gets to death, the lower down the vultures come. Jesus said: Where the carcass is, the vultures will be gathered together. Where the unregenerate flesh of man is exposed in its carnality and its sinfulness, you can be sure the vultures will be gathering. Now the remedies are totally different. What's the remedy for the flesh? The cross. That's right. Galatians 5:24: They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. What's the remedy for demons? To expel them, that's right. Now you cannot switch the remedies. You cannot expel the flesh and you cannot crucify demons. So in order to know which remedy to apply you have to know what you're dealing with.
Now I would say in general if you are a committed, sincere Christian who reads your Bible, prays has regular fellowship and desires to serve the Lord and you have a special kind of problem - something tormenting something aggravating, something humiliating something binding and enslaving and you've tried every remedy you've prayed, you've fasted, you've reckoned yourself dead and you still haven't resolved it you can be almost sure you're dealing with a demon. I can say this out of experience which is too long for me to relate this morning.