Using the term “demonic” is like uttering the ultimate curse to someone. It’s rooted in our understanding of how we associate words. Saying something or someone is demonic is not tying them to a demon. It isn’t alluding to the fact that an individual literally has a demonic spirit living in them. Although, in some cases that might actually be true. But generally, It’s simply identifying the source from which an idea; thought-pattern; belief or behavior originates. If you’re a ‘non-African’, and you dress in traditional African apparel, that doesn’t make you an African. It simply indicates and suggests the origin by which your clothing is influenced.
No-one is immune to the schemes of the devil and demonic influences and how they operate in the life of persons. The whole world lies in darkness, to this degree each of us has been trapped in it. Majority still are, even as believers.
1 John 5:19 (NIV)
“….and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”
We now know that the soul is the interpretive model used to make sense of the taking in of information/impulses, to which an emotional tag is allocated, informing us how to relate to the world around us. These emotions attached to our souls, become the base or foundational emotions from which we operate. Therefore, they are now our default setting of ‘emotional dependency’ on how we navigate successfully through life’s experiences. This default setting should at its’ best prevent us from experiencing hurt; pain; disappointment; abuse; anger; guilt; frustrations; despair; depression etc. Basically, it should aid us in avoiding anything that would hinder us from experiencing the absolute “best” life we could live.
This setting has been shaped by external influences, such as parent(s); family; community/society, race; gender; associations; culture and so on. We hardly ever question why we are the way we are. We simply accept things as they are, because it’s how we’ve always known it to be. Instead, we justify what we do by the way we are.
How do these demonic influences occur?
Everything we’ve ever known, these external influences which formed our emotional understanding, the very reason for us “being as we are”, the world, has been influenced and motivated by demonic entities in some fashion. Since the time of Adam, the culture of humanity in every generation has descended further into darkness. Further and deeper into the culture of Satan and demonic influences. So the effects of the workings of the demonic are evident in each and every generation. This obscured understanding of how we relate to the world, can come to us through the subtlest of influences, eg: as simple as a false belief. And it comes to us in the harshest of experiences, eg: an absent parent.
We should have a holistic viewpoint of the occurrences which drive us towards certain responses, and not view them as isolated incidences. The whole world lays in darkness and deception, influenced by Satan and demonic forces. Everything we may have known (about ourselves) up unto this point has been compromised through these influences. Because these demonic spirits, previously angels, were assigned to serve man and have in-depth understanding concerning our functioning. Therefore, it’s safe to assume that the vehicles these spirits use to do their bidding in the earth, are people.
The (natural) eyes of man is veiled from seeing the spiritual realm. As wind is unable to be seen, we know it’s presence by it’s effects. The effects of debris and trees etc. blowing around is a result of the wind. We experience its effects when we try and walk against strong gale force winds. Some able to move the heaviest of objects. So we do not see the spiritual realm or the demonic influences at work, but like the wind, we see the effects of these entities at work around us in the earth. Throughout history we have witnessed evil men fulfilling evil desires, not of themselves, but clearly demonically influenced.
When taking in impulses through our senses from our biosphere, it is not merely a physical environment we’re engaging with, it’s human beings. People exist in our biosphere that are unaware of any demonic influences in their lives. Merely used as actors by the control of the demonic to create situations and circumstances. And these circumstances stir up emotional responses in us consistent with allowing the enemy a greater foothold in our lives. The plan of the enemy is to always present you with a situation that causes you to ‘subsequently’ interpret it in a manner which brings back those inaccurate default emotions.
When a dominant default emotion is stirred because of an impulse, the demonic is able to capture that emotion. If whenever that emotion is kindled again in you, by circumstances that may not relate directly to the original event that tagged that emotion in you, you’re predisposed to acting in the same way.
The thing about the capturing of these emotions is that it doesn’t simply capture and take you back in your present state. The capturing takes you back to the exact place you were when that emotion was initially planted in your soul. Some of these emotions are activated in us as adults, and we remember them. Others are activated from the womb, and we’re unaware of how they got there.
Things that happened to you in the womb, can predispose your behavior throughout your life, without a clue as to why you say/think/act the way you do. The emotion, whenever it occurs in your adult life, good or bad; demonically interpreted or divinely inspired, will take you back to the first place you were where these emotions were first experienced and became part of your soul’s reality. Even if unknowingly, that place was the womb.
Often times people struggle with fear of abandonment and rejection in their lives. They carry within them a feeling of sorrow and depression, without any prior knowledge as to why. And upon seeking out advice and searching for answers, they might discover that while they were in the womb, their parents entertained the option of abortion. Because of the connection between mother and child, and even words spoken by the father, this spirit is transferred through physical and emotional connections onto the child.
When a father is abusive to a mother, and abandons her with the kid(s), the mother may (unintentionally) transfer those emotions of fear; desperation; abandonment onto the child. Whether the child experiences it firsthand or while in the womb. These will form the foundation for the emotional structure for how these children are shaped. So whether as a baby in the womb, unaware of things said and done, or whether fully conscious and aware of when something occurred in your biosphere, to which a certain emotional tag was assigned. In both instances, we are predisposed in the most fundamental and foundational way to how we view and relate to the world.
We need to access the gift from the Spirit of God, which enables us to detect activities in our souls. Activities that’s been co-opted and imprinted by emotional tags that allows the enemy to draw up these emotions, on the basis of new experiences. These experiences call up/revive/remind us of prior instances in which that same emotion was generated. So a current circumstance, having no resemblance of the original instance that created that emotional tag, permits the enemy to torment us – through the activation of the common emotion – taking us all the way back. This simply seeks to produce in us the prescribed response corresponding with the tagged emotion, by which we have learnt to “overcome” these situations. This is what bondage looks like.
The soul is use to its own existence. Up until the point that we come to repentance, walk a life dedicated to God, and allow the Holy Spirit to engage or spirits, our whole existence is predicated on the functioning and reasoning of our souls. Even after we’ve been engaged by the Holy Spirit, this still does not guarantee that we will not operate out of the knowledge of the soul. We are able to be ‘forgiven; blood-washed; faithful church-going-people of God’, and still be led by the emotions of our souls.
Spirits work together to perfect their control. Where rejection is the root spirit, it might invoke a spirit of neglect – spirit of abandonment – producing a spirit of performance.
This spirit of performance is where demonic influences thrive. Though fallen angels, demons remain in the fulfillment of their duties as servants. It’s in their nature, they cannot be separated from who or what they were created to be. The usefulness of a servant is to that servant fulfilling his functions. By this it can be understood that the working of a servant is performance based. A servant’s only relevance lays in their ability in fulfilling their duty through their performance.
When a child has a sense of rejection and abandonment, that child will grow up to do their best in all they attempt. They will seek acceptance, validation and love through their performance. Individuals having experience any form of desertion often become people-pleasers, seeking to help/provide/serve anyone in need. Often with a genuine desire to do so, however, with an underlying motive of validation for their efforts. They feel as though their value is tied to their ability to help, and feed off the recognition and endorsement of that. When children are abandoned/neglected, especially by a father, they feel as though becoming successful and accomplished might gain the love, acceptance and respect from those in their biosphere, in relation to the father who abandoned them. They view everyone as having the ability to abandon them. They therefore seek to impress and attract others through their abilities/skills/performances, in order that they seem valuable to those around them, in hopes of securing the relationships and avoiding any sense or form of abandonment.
Boys will seek to excel at sports, become successful, and well established. So do girls, along with seeking acceptance and some resemblance of love through being promiscuous. In constant pursuit of a relationship, using their feminine prowess, often unconsciously, to secure the attention of possible suitors. This results in nothing more than them circling back to their struggle with abandonment. And even when in a promising relationship, they will create an environment which produces circumstances by which the outcome leans towards abandonment and rejection. They need to exist in an environment conducive to their perception of reality and which satisfies their soul’s emotion. It’s the appetites of the soul the enemy uses to trigger these emotional happenings, which is subsequently exploited.
And this is by no means limited to the observation of abuse and abandonment by a parent. This goes into all spheres of circumstances by which we are predisposed to view and relate to everything in our ‘world’ inaccurately. From experiencing rejection and mocking from our peers growing up; having a low-self esteem; having a negative self-image; having endured embarrassment and shame; the list goes on. Anything and everything which has scared us to the point that our soul’s emotions does everything in it’s might to prevent us from reliving those emotions again. So the ‘spirit of performance’ emerges and leads us to overcompensate. Hoping the performance we put on is good enough to prohibit our insecurities and anxieties from being exposed.
James 1:14 (NLT)
“Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.”
So these things which attached itself to our souls in our formative years, has the complete ability to influence who we are as adults; 20;30;40 years later. Children who experience these traumas grow up to be adults seeking acceptance; security; nurturing and love from various avenues which, on a soulish level, seems as though it can provide it.
All these activities and efforts springs from a spirit of performance. Perform to be wanted, accepted, acknowledged, appreciated and loved. The spirit of performance is one of the greatest spirits which torment humanity. When a person believes their identity is related to their performance – they’re trapped by having received the mindset of a servant. Once in this domain, you can only be brutalized, because you’re functioning out of an imposed identity.
This identity has been crafted by no-one and nothing else but Satan and demonic influences. Through your identity being validated by your performance, you have been crafted into the image of a servant. The enemy is not capable of creating anything, so he simply coerces you into the adoption of this perspective as your true identity. So as believers we may claim to be sons and daughters of God, but when the nature of our identity is examined through the lens of our method of functioning, we find the opposite to be true.
This isn’t about your ability to do a thing. It’s about you deriving your relevance from being able to do the thing. God empowered us to be able to accomplish all manner of things, but for His glory. God never intended and designed it so, that we derive our importance; relevance and identity from what we do – that’s a servant’s perspective. And we sometimes fool ourselves by claiming, “We doing it to the glory of God”. When the truth is, if the notion is to receive validation; praise; reward for what we doing, it’s not from or to God, and it is demonic!
Because it’s demonic, it doesn’t mean it’s powerful or overwhelming, and something you cannot escape from – the power of it all lays in deception. The only way and reason it’s able to have this hold over you is because you believe it.
And when performance doesn’t work, because it never can, in-spite of our best efforts, over time depression enters in. Depression comes about because we have tied our identity to what we do, and when what we do isn’t good enough, we feel inadequate/helpless/alone. And those emotions of rejection and abandonment once again arises and this time the circumstance gives those emotions a sense of validation, and secures our identity in that which is false and what we think of ourselves.
This is the ministry of demonic influences to the human soul. The goal is to achieve total capture of all of the human emotions. It is to paralyze the human being to the point that you cannot act or feel without those actions and feelings being controlled by the demonic. And when these emotions are captured to this extent, it leaves the soul so weighed down, the body feels unable to function and be productive. It produces a sense of numbness which leaves you lethargic; apathetic; almost lifeless. In this state, we fall back into old ways; habits and coping mechanisms, and we embrace them like a shield from the storm.
At the time of these attacks, scripture always seems to have evaded us. We hope to consciously and intentionally recall scripture with the intent of applying it in order to determine what course of action should be taken in a particular situation. But this rarely ever happens. We’re caught up in the emotions of the moment. These battles are emotional, they’re internal warring. And the recognition of scripture is not emotional, but rather rational. Understandably, the emotions are anything but rational at the time of conflict. That’s why after, the enemy is able to ‘harass’ us with accusations and bring to our attention false notions as to why and how we behaved the way we did.
Ephesians 6:12 (NLT)
“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”
The truth is you’ve never known who you are. The view that prevails in your mind of yourself is not an accurate one. A false and inaccurate identity has been forged through a continuous lie, repeated over and over again in the most vulnerable stages of your existence. Spiritual warfare is not a metaphor. It would be more accurate to say that human warfare is a metaphor — and an expression — of the even more real and pervasive spiritual war being waged all around us. And unless we engage it seriously, we will not be serious players in it, and may be swept away by it. The result of most people’s lives are evidence that they do not actively and strategically, engage and oppose the workings of the enemy in it. Because we have not understood the trappings of our souls through crafty schemes established by this enemy, we are not equipped to overcome it.