A QUESTION ABOUT EVIL SPIRITS
Sakkie Parsons
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ…”
1COR 15:57
Following something I wrote about evil spirits and illnesses, someone wrote the following to me: “A question from my side, following your writing about the distinction between the devil and illness. You explained it well, and I have included the last paragraph of your writing below for easy reference for you. When I pray for an evil spirit that is in someone, I do not necessarily lay my hands on the person, but I certainly address the spirit and command it, with the Authority that is in me, in the Name of Jesus, the only Name given to mankind through which we can be saved, to leave the person. My question is as follows: you say that when you pray for an evil spirit that is in someone, I would like to know how you know that there is an evil spirit in someone. I agree about illnesses and that they are not necessarily evil spirits, but how do you know when it actually is one?”
Here, then, is how I see this matter:
Firstly, there certainly are evil spirits/demons—the Word leaves us in no doubt about this—and they can manifest themselves in a person in a multitude of ways. As usual, because of the length of this writing, I will give just two examples.
At one end of this extremely broad spectrum, you find the most insane, cruel, inhuman, and disgusting manifestation.
MARK 5:2–8
2 When he had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit met him out of the tombs.
3 He lived in the tombs. Nobody could bind him any more, not even with chains,
4 because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Nobody had the strength to tame him.
5 Always, night and day, in the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out, and cutting himself with stones.
6 When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and bowed down to him,
7 and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, don’t torment me.”
8 For he said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
At the opposite end of the spectrum, however, they can even manifest themselves in a person as devoutly religious.
ACTS 16:16–18
16 As we were going to prayer, a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling.
17 Following Paul and us, she cried out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation!”
18 She was doing this for many days. But Paul, becoming greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” It came out that very hour.
As far as the latter is concerned, there are, in my opinion, even a few who regularly make their appearance in pulpits.
The second matter that must be carefully taken into account is this: despite what the fraudsters say as they go around with great showmanship and publicity, trying here and there to deliver people who have accepted Jesus as their Redeemer and Saviour from one spirit or another—according to my understanding of the Word and my relationship with our Lord, I can only say that it is impossible for someone who has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them to have an evil spirit, a demon, dwelling within them.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
In my opinion, it borders on blasphemy to claim that Jesus would share a dwelling with satan.
To further substantiate what I am saying, I can only quote our Lord once again:
MATTHEW 7:16–19
16 By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
17 Even so, every good tree produces good fruit, but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit.
18 A good tree can’t produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit.
19 Every tree that doesn’t grow good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
There is, of course, another offence of which the deliverance fraudsters are guilty. They deliver a person—if they have perhaps genuinely delivered that person—and then consider their task completed. It is precisely at this point that they reveal their true colours as fraudsters. For the Word says:
MATTHEW 12:43–45
43 When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and doesn’t find it.
44 Then he says, ‘I will return into my house from which I came out,’ and when he has come back, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.
45 Then he goes and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than he is, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so will it be also to this evil generation.
So, if I now understand the Word correctly, it means that if I have a ministry of deliverance, I will not simply deliver someone and then take my Bible, my DVDs that have not sold, and my fee, and hurry off to the next place full of evil spirits.
No, I am supposed to make it a matter of urgency to help the person come to Jesus, so that the person can invite Jesus into the clean, empty dwelling.
How do I know when it is illness and when it is the devil?
Well, sometimes there are visible signs. A man, for example, who takes perverse pleasure in abusing his wife, or forcing her to do things to satisfy his evil desires, is, in my opinion, driven by an evil spirit.
A woman lying in bed with a high fever, burning hot, panting and sweating, is ill.
A person who seriously claims that he or she can summon the dead and predict my future, and wants to help me communicate with my deceased loved one, or wants to predict my future, has, in my opinion, according to my understanding of the Word, an evil spirit.
These are a few obvious, visible examples. However, there are countless cases where it is not so obviously visible. In any case, I myself do not look at visible signs, simply because I would not be able to see them anyway, as I myself do not have physical sight.
Ultimately, however, what applies to me applies to every other child of our Lord—
For the right discernment, I keep my eyes firmly fixed on our Lord.
HEBREWS 12:2 looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
If you do that, you will know what you need to know, when you need to know it.
That is, in any case, how I deal with this kind of thing.
Whatever you may encounter in this world—from one end of the spectrum, with spiritual fraudsters, spiritual “phonies” and their tricks, right across the broad spectrum to evil spirits and everything surrounding them—I conclude with this encouragement and advice from the Word:
1 CORINTHIANS 15:57
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 CORINTHIANS 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Greetings,
Sakkie