Demons

There have been several times in my life when I have felt and, I believe, seen demons when either I or my children were in distress.  Each time, I commanded them to leave “in the Holy Name of Jesus”, whereupon the feeling of dread left immediately!  

Demons are real.  They hate us and they desire deeply to destroy us.  If that’s not frightening it should at least make us sit up and pay attention.

Demons are fallen angels who retain their natural powers.  Though they turned from God and acted in complete selfishness, God doesn’t strip away their natural powers unless they misuse them and we turn to Him for help.  As with the holy angels, demons have natural powers of communication and influence upon us and upon our world.  The angels are given the care of the world and our lives.  Those angels that fell from grace now try to use their power over the world and their power to influence us and communicate with us for evil.  They’ve turned from God and now they want to turn us.

One thing this tells us is that we must constantly act in a discerning way.  It’s easy to be tempted and led astray by a lying demon.  In the case of the man in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 4:31-37) he had so cooperated with his demon that it took full possession of his life.  Though that level of influence and control upon us is quite rare, it can happen.  What’s most important, however, is that we simply understand and believe that demons are real and they constantly try to lead us astray.

But the good news is that Jesus has all power over them and easily confronts them and overpowers them if we but seek His grace to do so.  

We’ve all experienced demonic temptations, but they’re nothing to be overly frightened about.  And they shouldn’t be seen in an overly dramatic light.  Demons are powerful, but the power of God easily triumphs if we let Him take control.  As we reflect upon the reality of evil and demonic temptations, we should allow God to take command and trust that God will conquer.