Demons! Be gone! Luke 11:14-28

I know, I chose a grotesque picture for this blog. It is not pleasant to look and it is not pleasant to think about it. Imagine if that is the kind of creatures we were seeing on the streets. Would you dare to go out there? Yet, the face of evil is not pretty. Someone might look beautiful on the outside but this is the way they look in the inside.

You think I am nuts?, My husband would agree with you but, I am listening to the Master, and we are dining with him, remember?. We are also studying His words very closely.  He has a lot to say about this truth; about these creatures. He came to pay the price to rescue us from this enemy and to free us so that we would not look like this in the inside. He gave us life! When we encounter this enemy, we often want to close our eyes, we want to ignore it and pretend it does not exist. We call it many names but it’s own.

At present, if we really think about it, we would not just ignore what is happening out there in the world. Isis, The killings of people, the slavery of children and adults alike, human trafficking, sexual abuse, sexual corruption, oppression of the poor and innocent, Drug abuse, elder abuse, hatred against each other..you get my point. These are the worst, but there are other sudden evils we give them a prettier face such as gossip, adultery, discrimination, theft, lyes and the list goes on and on.

There is also the underground speech those unintelligent people speak about. you hear it in whispers and rumors that have been going around for ever.  It is out there.It has always been. It comes out in movies, art, portrayed in pictures and sang in songs. As a little child in a remote part of Honduras, I heard stories from my grandmother and from uncles and cousins of strange things, of evil things.

As I grew up and became an “educated person” I imagined that these were on the minds of “simple people”.  As a young adult and a single mother, I moved to a low-income housing here in the States while I was going through nursing school. Sure you can say I was in a stressful situation, for I had never lived in my own place before. I was young with a child and no support of family around. You can attribute it to my psychological state or you could hear me out.

On my first night, at three o’clock in the morning, I was awaken by a force that was holding me down on my bed. That force terrified me and kept me from speaking. I tried to yell, and get up but couldn’t and then I started praying. I felt my mother’s presence come to the door of my room. She had been dead for a few years. I did not see her I just knew her presence. I yelled the name of Jesus and I was released. As I look at the time on my clock it said 3:00 Am.

At this time, It felt very real but my dreams sometimes feel very real. I thought it was a nightmare and I just prayed. I went back to sleep and I went through my day only with a mild annoyance of such ugly dream. The next night, the same thing happened. Exactly the same way and at exactly the same time. I then started asking questions and found out that the previous dwellers and managers of this apartment complex were into devil worshipping. To make the story short, the next night, I did not sleep but spend the night praying and reading my bible. (I wasn’t so much into praying then) This surely shook me up and made me call God for help.

In our reading today on Luke 11:14-28, Jesus is freeing someone from an evil spirit that is causing him to be mute. After the demon is out, the man speaks! He has found Freedom! but those around him prefer to not call it for what it is. God’s power!. Why is it so hard for us to believe? Do you think it is because of that force that hold us down? that blind us and mute us?. To believe anything else is better than to believe in God?

They started rumors amongst each other “He has the devil’s power and that is how He takes the demons out”.  If He was from God, “He would give us a sign”, right now! He needs to prove himself! They were not saying it to Jesus. Certainly they were scared but Jesus understood their thoughts and gave an explanation to them  to help them make sense of things.

He said: If a kingdom is divided against itself, it will not last. He also said if a family is divided it will fall. I was often told by the experts in parenting that to help our children, we needed to be united as parents even if we disagreed behind doors, for there is power in unity.  Ahead of time we would make this committment to each other to help our children. I can’t say we were good at it, but we tried. any organization that has its members pulling in different directions is not going to be very successful.

I believe that the most important aspect of this Scripture that I am seeing today is that Jesus is saying: You are telling me that you think I am working under satan. What do you ascribe it to when your children cast demons out? (those who claimed at that time to cast out demons, the present exorcist). If you claim that my power is under satan what would their weak powers testify about? Let them be your judges. For they are but blaspheming God’s name!.

They are casting demons out but do not offer people anything in exchange. Satan is in control and is guarding his house (the person he is in possession of) but when someone with a greater power comes and takes his possessions, That someone or power finds a place for everything in it and distributes it for He knows how to do that. He distributes satan’s plunder. in other words it sends the spirits to where they belong, which is away from the people, away from the possessed.

He is saying: If you are casting demons out and not filling the space with the word of God, you are not doing my work. Luke 11:23 “He who is not with Me is against me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters” If not gathering people for God, they were making Satan’s power stronger.

He said that when the unclean spirit is cast out, it passes through waterless places seeking rest. It needs a water source. The human body is  made up of 60% water. Perhaps Jesus was referring to our blood. When it does not find it, it returns to the empty house where it was before and finds it in order and clean. God is not in possession of it, for the previous exorcist did not offer it or the previously possessed man did not ask God in.

Luke 11:26 says that the evil spirit invites seven other spirits more evil than itself and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man, becomes worst than the first. Perhaps finding itself out by some power, the evil spirit wants to make sure it secures its dwelling and therefore invites more in. Does this seem like people who continues to follow evil and the longer they stay in that state, they become harder and harder to help turn back? Their hearts become hardened. But there is no evil power that is stronger than the power of Jesus! Thanks God for His grace!

Jesus makes this point clear when the woman on the crowds say on Luke 11:27-28 “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed” and He said ” on the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word and observe it” His point is clear. Where the word of God is (Jesus) and it is observed, there the Spirit of God dwells and no evil can over take it!. Therefore demon, be gone!

My friend, fill your mind and your heart with the Word of God! He is full of light and what people perceive as rules, is His way of protecting us from such ugly fate, because He loves us more than you and I can understand. I encourage you to read the Scriptures. Don’t you think they deserve to be read?.

Don’t let others dictate your future. Read for yourself and make your own choices. Make a plan today to read even if it is a small amount daily. Keep your house full of his riches so that no evil would have a minimal chance to occupy it. Don’t say no before spending time searching it. It is your life and those around you that are at stake. Today is the day of Salvation!