Demons

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

DEMONS

Matt 9:32-34

32 While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. 33 And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel." 34 But the Pharisees said, "It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons."

NIV

Demon possession is a horrific way to live, they do things within the person for the express reason to torture or cause harm to a person. In e case of this man, the demon kept the man from being able to speak. Life would be very difficult not being able to communicate with others. Perhaps this man was able to write out his wants or needs, but still, he could not talk. He could not carry on a normal conversation, but there could have been more that was wrong with them, as someone brought him to Jesus. Of course, Jesus drove out the demon and the man could speak once more. He was most likely able to speak at one time in his life before the demon took possession of him. This leads us to the question of how does a demon take possession of a person? We know that first there has to be a void within, that is the Spirit has not been invited as a result of accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. As we know, there are many somewhat religious people or those who say they believe in God, and perhaps even believe in Jesus, but even the demons believe in Jesus for they obey him when he tells them to leave a person alone. Believing does not necessarily mean accepting Him as Lord and Savior. If a person is not born again or born from above, then they are subject to being possessed by a demon. There are many demons, of which the exact number is not known, but enough to affect, or rather infect many people. From what we learn in the scriptures, Jesus encountered many demon-possessed people. It was fairly common in those days, and it seems we have forgotten that it can still and does happen today. We must know that the demons did not stop possessing people and just float around seeing where they might cause some chaos. There are also people similar to the Pharisees who do not believe Jesus is the Son of God, but rather accuse Him of being someone else. Matthew does not tell us here in this narrative that Jesus dispelled their accusations by talking about a house divided cannot stand, and if he were the prince of demons and casting out demons, that would be a house divided and it would not stand. But the point is we should be aware there are demons in this world and they want to cause us harm if they could, but because we have the Spirit, the demons cannot inflict their influence upon us, but that also means we could encounter people who are possessed and therefore influenced by demons. It should be easy to see them, for as we walk in the light, they are walking in darkness. This is not to say that everyone who has either rejected Jesus, or has not been born again is possessed by a demon, but it also does means they could be. So, we walk being aware, rather than not being mindful of the existence of demons. This is also why God has clothed us with his armor, so we can take our stand.