Essentials for dealing with demonic intrusions ….. From 3/24/25. Notes from Seedbed.com webinar with Dr. Steve Seamands.
We can’t avoid spiritual conflict…. Like trying to avoid weeds in gardening or lawn maintenance. It is a valuable dimension of Christian life.
Value:
- Understand the wiles of the devil. We have an enemy. We don’t need to fear him but respect his strategies. He is a liar and he accuses and opposes God.
- We need to know how to fight the battle. Not carnal weapons or weapons of the flesh…. Done with praise, worship, intercessory prayer and fasting. The enemy wants to keep us from those.
- Understand that we have authority in Christ.
4.) Understand the spiritual dimension of life. (God’s image!!)
Necessary fundamental- Keep Christ at the center!
Any teaching that causes fear and leads us to lose our victory over the devil is wrong.
Our understanding of the spiritual realm should not make the devil bigger, but make Jesus bigger!
When Satan attacks command him to bend his neck. There will be a nail scarred footprint there! Focus on what Christ has done, not what the devil wants to impose.
AW Tozer: Keep Christ in the center of your vision and if satan is lurking he will be seen only in the periphery, only at the edge, and as a mere shadow in the brightness of Christ.
Tools of our battle: Ephesians 6:10-17
Spiritual realm conflict resolution is the entire focus and purpose of the Armor of God
“10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
With regard to belt of truth being first….. it equips us with the ability to recognize and respond to the lies of the Enemy. It is the foundation upon which discernment is built. Truth is revealed, illuminated, and mediated for us through the Word, Spirit, and Person of Christ present in His people, His Church.
…..breastplate of righteousness….it equips us to guard our hearts against the accusations of the Enemy….
These are our starting points for standing against the wiles of our Enemy in resolution of spiritual conflict which is the point of the armor.
With truth and righteousness in place we are setting our feet on solid ground to wear the shoes of readiness for the Gospel of Peace that is in Christ.
All humanity is given “a measure of faith”, but when the first three are in place our faith begins to be directed toward Christ, the Prince of Peace, and because the object of our faith is then rightly focused, faith is transformed into a potent shield that covers us in the midst of battle.
With testing of our faith and the substantive faith in the true object of our faith, Jesus Christ, whom we have embraced, we obtain the helmet of salvation that protects our minds and molds our will to obedience to God’s will.
With those things in place we can be trusted to hold and wield the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word, doing so righteously with accuracy and accountability to achieve God’s purpose and plan.
Then, finally and most importantly……
Ephesians 6:18-20
“18 And finally, equip yourself at all times with prayer for other and yourself! And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,
20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Christ is the pattern for us on how to engage in spiritual realm conflict resolution.
Where did Christ win? The final battle was on the cross. Hebrews 2:14-17 is a key verse.
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them,[a] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
As the kingdom of God advances as the kingdom of darkness recedes. If our understanding of spiritual warfare doesn’t make sense of the cross it is wrong!
Colossians 2:13-15 is an important scripture instructing us on Christ’s way of fighting:
“13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[a] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
- Jesus forgave us all our sins. This forgiveness is the foundation of our freedom.
- Jesus canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, our sin having been used by the devil as evidence against us for to condemn us for our rebellion against God (just like the devil’s own rebellion!). Jesus disarmed satan and made a spectacle of him.
- Jesus Jesus took our sin away, nailing it on the cross
Jesus did not defeat the Enemy by power over power, though Jesus did sometimes use power. The confrontation at the cross was not a clash of the Titans. Jesus won by erasing the charge created by our sins and meeting its legal demands. The Enemy was overcome not by power but by JUSTICEaccomplished through the sacrifice of His own body and blood on the cross. Sacrificing of blood was the requirement to discharge the debt of sin. Jesus cancelled the record against us, took it away, and nailed it to the cross. He bought us by his sacrificial death, stamping our death warrant “PAID IN FULL” making any further charge null and void.
From “It is well with my soul” hymn:
My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin, not in part but the whole;
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul!
Our liberation from sin is also our liberation from satan. He has no claim, no authority, no power.
When we are disobedient, the devil seeks to lay claim to us as his rightful property in our guilt and shame. We effectively give over our authority to satan. Do not give the devil more than he is due. If we understand our position in Christ, as redeemed people saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we can brush aside the Enemy’s effort to condemn us. We must remember that Jesus dealt with our sin and rebellion, defeating it at the cross for all time for all people who will receive it by profession of faith in Jesus Christ.
Since the devil is a creature, created by God, just as humans are, he can only know and weigh humanity from the point of creation. God, however, is eternal and is timeless and is sovereign over all of time eternal. When Jesus paid the debt for humanity’s sin with His innocent blood, it was for all humanity for all time. Faith in Christ applies His innocent blood to me.
The primary focus of spiritual warfare is dealing with sin, not confronting the demonic activity. Areas of unrighteousness are our vulnerabilities. Tom White, author of “The Believer’s Guide to Spiritual Warfare”, says that those parts not yet yielded to the Holy Spirit are healed by grace.
Areas where warfare is done:
- The battle within – 4 areas
- Assaults you in relationship to your identity in Christ- as a person, our performance, approval of others, being accepted, having nothing criticized. Our possessions, our relationships. These are attack points. Lies we have believed, Making us feel insignificant.
- Unresolved Sins- issues, consequences, and habits of our sin, pre-conversion and post -conversion. Generational patterns.
- Broken relationships – Enemy attacks us through others.
- Worldliness- Enemy controls the value system of the world, makes it appear desirable, necessary, or only choice.
- The battle without- 3 areas
- Flaming arrows- negative thoughts that come “out of the blue”, don’t make sense, take authority over such thoughts and if it is from the Enemy command it to stop!
- Through a person or a place- where a presence of darkness hovers, one feels “slimed”, unsettled, “dark”. Such a feeling may linger for a time.
- From doing right- flack from advancing the kingdom. Or when one is called to something new in ministry . Stirring life of the church toward division. People can suffer from doing right!
Go back to the “heart” of the matter. Forgiveness is a triumph of the heart! Jesus forgave his abusers and asked the Father to do the same! From the cross!
If my usual strategies to thrive don’t work, assume it is coming from the Enemy! Take authority commanding in the name of Christ for it to cease.
It may occur in a group where sin has been tolerated. Even in a city. Or generational sin. The devil has to operate by the rules God has established for the universe.
Sins of the fathers affect to the 3-4 generation. It is not a level playing field. A former generation may have alignment with evil. Jesus paid the penalty for personal AND generational sin.
“Freed us from the futile ways of our ancestors”- 1 Peter 1:18 – “For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value”. Also, remember that Paul’s instruction tis o cast aside anything that weighs us down or hinders our running the race in Hebrews 12:1! The blood of Christ is a boundary we can set between ourselves and our ancestors. Pray for generational sins to be broken and its power over us, break any access given through such sins. We don’t bear guilt but we do bear consequences. Breaking the family line by Christ’s sanctification makes one a blessing to family.
Spiritual power is released through sacrifice. The primary example is in Jesus’ sacrifice. Fasting makes a sacrifice and releases power in the spirit realm. Prayer opens the heart of God. Fasting binds the hands of the devil.
Fasting should be included in the strategies for spiritual conflict resolution. If we are yielding to the fleshly longings, the “dainties” of the devil then he has to go no further. In the devil’s temptations of Eve and Christ the first was to the longing of the flesh – hunger. The second was to the covetousness of the heart for power and wealth. The third was attempt to call identity and significance into question.
Ephesians 6:13- the sword of the Spirit: If there is no known sin, how to lovingly engage to help with spiritual attack? Is it Enemy within? Where does this assault come from? Where does this person fall? Hurts? Emotional issues/
Preconditions to discern demonic issues- Start by asking self, “Is it emotional? Spiritual? If not, consider demonic intrusion. Even if those are present, demonic component can still be present.
Fathers and mothers have spiritual authority over our children. A husband has authority over his family.. Demons understand lines of authority and can observe when they are rightly aligned. (Jon Thompson also talked about his element of dealing with demonic intrusion. Follow proper authority.). CBB-4-8-25