Rabbi Schneider - How Demons Enter Our Lives

Many people in our culture today, especially in the Western world, they hear the word demon and it seems like an archaic word to them. It seems like it's just superstitious, that the demons aren't really real. People believe that back in the day when the Bible was written, they called those things demons but they were really just medical problems. And they think that the things that the people of the ancient world called demons, they think that those types of manifestations, that the writers of Scripture attributed to demons, they say now that we know more, we know that they really weren't demons but all these things they say can be scientifically and medically explained.

But I want to ask you, beloved, this. Is the Word of God truth, because Jesus said they were demons. And nearly one third of Jesus's ministry, beloved, involved setting people free who were entrapped in darkness and who were having problems with entities that Yeshua called demons. And this wasn't just, beloved, in an isolated incident or two, it was everywhere he went. For example, listen to the Book of Mark, chapter 1, verse 39. Notice where the demons were, Mark, 1:39: And when He, meaning Yeshua, meaning Jesus, when He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, listen now, He was preaching and casting out the demons.

Let me read it again: And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons. Where did he find the people that had these demons in this particular verse? They were in the synagogue. These were God fearing people, beloved. These were, these were the descendants of Israel. Jesus went into the synagogue and he was casting out the spirits with his Word in the synagogue. And I want you to know today, I know by experience that many of us, all of us that are believers, still have to fight against what the Bible says, not flesh and blood, but against principalities and forces of spiritual darkness which Jesus calls demons.

I want you to understand, as I said last week, demons, they're personal beings. It's not just some general form of darkness. It's not just some general evil. The darkness that Jesus describes as Satan or demons, this is personal evil. It's evil with a mind, evil with intelligence, evil that speaks. Jesus said to the demons, what are, what is your name? And the demon spoke through the man and said our name is legion for we are many. I want you to know, I've been fortunate enough to have much experience helping people that have had problems with demons, and have seen all the manifestations that the Bible describes happening in the Gospels and in the Book of Acts. I've seen that in my own ministry. I've seen people that are being delivered screaming, and vomiting, and foaming at the mouth, and rolling on the ground, and going into convulsions; especially overseas I see these things.

But, beloved, in the United States, in the Western world, I see people that, listen to me beloved one, they're chronically depressed. And why are they chronically depressed? Do they just need a pill to make them feel better? And I'm not denying, beloved, the value of modern medicine. But if you think about it, depression is often caused by wrong thought patterns. Think about this. Depression is often caused by wrong thoughts. People are thinking thoughts that make them depressed. They're not thinking thoughts of hope. They're thinking thoughts of hopelessness.

I want to ask you the question, where do thoughts come from? And I want to say that thoughts, beloved, emanate from the spirit world. Thoughts come from the realm of spirit. You see, God has thoughts and we are encouraged and admonished to tie into his thoughts and to put our antenna up to listen to his thoughts, and focus our mind on his thoughts. Paul said, whatever is lovely, whatever is beautiful, dwell on these things. But there are other thoughts that are being broadcast into the spiritual atmosphere that surrounds our life; thoughts of hopelessness, thoughts of hatred, thoughts of jealousy, thoughts of addiction, thoughts of violence. Where do these thoughts come from? Do thoughts come from a chemical?

Beloved, thoughts come from the spirit realm. And so many people today that we just think, oh you know what, they're just depressed, or they're just chronically anxious. And people think that the explanation for this is, oh they should just go see a psychiatrist, or they just need to take this pill. And again, I'm not underestimating the value of psychiatrists or pills, but I'm simply saying, beloved, at the end of the day, often times psychiatrists and pills can't cure the root problem because the root problem is wrong thinking, and stinking thinking, beloved, comes from the realm of the spirit. And the spirit that's causing this thinking, beloved, is the spirit realm that emanates from Satan and demons.

We have a problem, beloved, the Church in this world in terms of being challenged with darkness. We have to be strong. The Bible says to gird our self. In fact the Scripture says, young men you are strong, the Scripture says, young men you are strong and have overcome the evil one. Jesus said that we must overcome in the Book of Revelation. And I want to teach you, Church, how to fight. We're not gonna win this battle if we deny that demons are real. And I'm not saying that you wouldn't say yeah, I see that demons are real because I see that the Bible talks about them. I'm not just saying that; but that you would really allow yourself to recognize that some of the things that you're dealing with are demonic in origin.

Now just hold on and listen to me for a second. What am I meaning? I'm meaning if you are finding yourself worrying all the time, if you're finding yourself, beloved one, being tormented by fear, my question to you is, why? Where's the fear coming from? Where's the worry coming from? And I'm suggesting to you that it's emanating from darkness that the Bible calls demons. Demons seek to project their thoughts into our minds and into our hearts. I shared with you on last week's broadcast that here was King David, a man that loved God, a man that God described as being after his own heart. Yet the Bible tells us about David, that Satan deceived him and led him to take a census and David ended up reaping a punishment for that, discipline of the Lord.

What happened here was Satan, and he was able to exert his influence over David. You see, David didn't know he was agreeing with Satan when he took the census. David thought it was his own thought, but it wasn't his own thought. Satan put the thought in his mind but David didn't realize it. I want you to understand, beloved, we need to be become enlightened about this. Paul prayed in the Book of Ephesians that God would enlighten the eyes of our heart to understand.

And I ask right now, Father God, that you would give your people, that you would give your church, that you would give these beloved ones of yours that are watching my broadcast right now, understanding and revelation concerning the nature of reality that we live in; that Father, we live in a spiritual world. Jesus, I think about your word in the Book of Revelation. You said to your people, "I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is".

Beloved, evil is real and evil has an agenda. And the agenda of evil is to bring you down. The, the purpose of evil is to bring people into bondage. But Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And if you continue my word, you're truly disciples of mine and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Beloved, we're not gonna get victory if we don't lift our head out of the ground and recognize the truth. You see, Jesus demonstrated how, how, how significant this problem of evil was by driving out demonic spirits everywhere he went. And again, it wasn't just with the heathen that didn't care about God. It was in the synagogues.

Now how is it that demons can gain entrance into people's lives. How does it happen? And beloved, the Bible gives us several channels. The Bible helps us to understand several ways in which demonic entities can enter. I want to begin today by looking at what may be the most common form of entry points for demons. And this is, beloved, through the entry point of what I'm calling generational curses, generational spirits, meaning that spirits, beloved, move down through family lines from one generation to the next generation. In other words, if you had a mom that worried all the time, chances are that you've had a struggle with worry. And probably your mom's mom or dad worried all the time. And again, as I indicated earlier, where does worry come from? It emanates, beloved, from the spirit world.

And so demons can gain entrance into our lives, beloved, because they've been in our families and they are passed on from one generation to the next. It's the same way in the natural realm when you go to the doctor's office. When you go to your doctor's office, what's the first thing they have you do if you're going for the first time? They give you a long questionnaire to fill out, right? And they ask you all these questions. Is there any history of heart disease on, on your mom or dad's side of the family? Has your mom or dad, they ask you, ever had diabetes? And they give you this long list of questions wanting to find out, not only what your health history is, but they want to know what your parents' health history is. Why? Because they know that there's a great propensity for the spirit, for the physical problems that your parents had to be passed on to you.

And in the same way that we see physical problems passed down through families; in other words, if your, if there was a history of heart disease in your family, the doctor wants to know because he knows that you then may be vulnerable in that area. In the same way this is true in the natural realm, Church, it can also be true in the spiritual realm as I've been describing. So for example, if your dad was involved in a lot of immoral activity, chances are this has been a challenge in your life. It's passed on, the spirits are passed on from one generation to the next.

Do you know that the apostles of Jesus recognized how evil spirits can enter in through the sin of our family tree? In other words, listen what happened in the Book of John, chapter 9, verse 1 and 2: As He passed by, speaking of Jesus, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, Rabbi, get this now, who sinned. When they saw the man that was born blind, the first thing the disciples thought about was, okay something's wrong with him. Is it because of his own sin, get it now, or his parents' sin?

Listen: The disciples asked Him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents? You see in the age that the Bible was written, the people of God understood that the parents' sin and the grandparents' sin opened the door, beloved, for spirits to infect their own lives. Listen what happened in the Book of Exodus, chapter 20, verse 5. I'm reading now from the Torah. Here's what the Lord said, Exodus, 20, verse 5: You shall not worship them or serve them, speaking about foreign gods. He says, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers, get this now, on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.

In other words, when, when, when our parents or grandparents or great-grandparents lived in rebellion against God, or opened the door for sin to operate in their life; and because they allowed the door for sin to open in their life, spirits came in, because when we sin, we give spirits a legal right to enter. The Bible understands that the problems that people are experiencing right now may not be the result of their own sin first of all, but it may be the result of their parents' sin or their great-grandparents' sin, even three or four generations back. So the disciples said to Jesus in John, 9, Rabbi, whose sin, was it this man or his parents that this blindness is now his problem. Spirits are passed on through family lines.

And I want to ask you right now, if you think about your own life and some of the things that you're struggling with, if you're struggling in an area, try to identify that with me now. We all have areas that we're struggling. And I want to ask you this, can you trace that same problem in your life to your parents or great-grandparents? For many of you right now, the answer is yes. And I want to ask you right now, if you trust me, let's just ask the Lord to forgive our parents or grandparents or great-grandparents, whatever is was in the family, wherever it was that, that door was opened, let's ask the Lord to forgive us, cover us by the blood of Jesus, and let's close that door, Amen.

So Father God, in Jesus's name we come to you right now and we want to thank you, Father, for the victory, the absolute victory that you have given us, that you've given the church in Messiah Jesus; that Jesus, you came to destroy the works of the devil, and Jesus, you said that Satan had nothing in you. And we recognize that spirits can gain access into our lives through our parents, our great, great parents, even three or four generations back. And right now Jesus, we bring you our entire ancestral line, our parents, grandparents, etc., three or four generations. Jesus, we ask you right now, wherever the door was opened for demons to enter my family, that are now plaguing me, Jesus, I ask for your forgiveness. I ask you to cover it by your blood. I ask you to forgive me and cover me by your blood. And Jesus, in your name I renounce Satan. I renounce every demon of darkness. And Jesus, I ask you right now to help me to shut the door so that demons of darkness can no longer gain entrance to me through the generational sins of my past. Amen and Amen. Jesus, we close the door right now for sin and demonic power to be affecting our lives right now because of our past generations. This is a real phenomenon.

Once again, people that worry all the time, depressed all the time, alcoholism, spirits of obesity, spirits of all types of, spirits of fear. These spirits, beloved, often began not in your lifetime, but you actually entered the world with these spirits plaguing you because they had been in your family. But praise God, in Jesus we crush Satan under our feet and Jesus has come to deliver us out of darkness and to bring us in to his marvelous light.

Now the second way that demons enter, beloved, and I'm gonna have to continue on next week's broadcast, but the second way demons enter is through our own sin. When we sin, we step outside of God's covering and we actually open the door for demons to gain access into our life. Remember, Jesus said to the woman, he said to the, to the, not the woman, but the individual that he delivered, he said, listen, he said, sin no more that nothing worse will befall you. And then Jesus told the parable that when, when someone gets delivered from a demon, if that person doesn't repent, if their house still stays out of order, he was speaking of the individual. If the person doesn't put their house in order by repenting and walking in the steps of the Lord, Jesus said that the demon that was cast out of that person will go and get seven other demons more wicked than itself and they'll come back inside that person and take up residence.

The point is, is that demons can gain legal access to our lives, beloved, when we sin. When we open, when we sin, we're actually opening the door for a demon to make entrance. I know that years ago before I knew the Lord, I was doing something that I knew was wrong. I mean I didn't have much enlightenment back then because I didn't' have a lot, I didn't really have a godly upbringing. But you know, it was something that was just, not something that I was proud of, and I literally felt a demon try to enter me as I was committing this act.

And thank God, because of his mercy I literally felt this entity, beloved, try to come into my head. I literally felt the force of this foreign thing trying to push itself into me. From my head, I literally felt, swoosh, this thing swoop down into my head. And then praise God, in his mercy I felt something in my push it back out. It was only the mercy of God. But why did that happen? 'Cause I was sinning and I was opening up the door, beloved, for a demon to enter. This is one of the reasons the Bible tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And part of fearing the Lord is recognizing that if we're sinning, we're opening up the door, beloved, for judgment and for evil spirits. That's why we walk in the fear of the Lord, to keep those gates closed.

Now I'm just getting warmed up, beloved. I want to help you. I know this is heavy, but I'm confident of this, if you'll stick with me through this series on Self Deliverance, gaining victory over the powers of darkness, you're gonna be equipped to learn how to fight and you're gonna enter into greater victory and greater freedom in your life. I promise you that. If you take the revelation I'm sharing with you, and receive it, and train yourself with it, you're gonna get stronger and stronger, and walk into greater and greater freedom. Get all the resources, beloved, in connection with this series. I love you and Shalom.