SPIRITUAL WARFARE - Part 5: Forcing the Gates

Pastor Derek Prince further elaborates here in a practical teaching about some of the methods by which demons gain entry into our lives:

To attempt a comprehensive explanation of all the possible ways that demons enter into our lives, is far beyond the scope of all the posts I've tried to share thus far. So for this post I will simply share seven examples of moments or places of weakness through which demons habitually gain access to human personalities.

1. A family background in the occult or false religions

In Exodus 20:3-5 the Lord warns of the evil consequences when people become involved in idolatry or false religion.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;(Exodus 20:3-5)


God warns against all forms of idolatry or other involvement with false "gods." The evil consequences of these particular sins can extend to four generations. Counting backward for four generations gives us four levels of ancestors:

Parents: 2
Grandparents: 4
Great-grandparents: 8
Great-great-grandparents: 16
Total: 30

Any or all of these thirty persons could be a channel through whom we may have been exposed to satanic influence. I doubt if any of us can guarantee that none of our thirty immediate ancestors was ever involved in any form of the occult or false religion. This occult influence can begin while we are still in the womb. After all, what is weaker or more helpless than an unborn baby? It is entirely dependent on its parents for protection, but parents with an occult background expose their babies to the same spiritual influences that are at work in their own lives. I have discovered that such babies are often demonized before they emerge from the womb. This is particularly true of people with backgrounds in Eastern religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism, or other false religions such as Freemasonry or Mormonism(... also Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Advocates, Roman Catholicism, Islam, etc.)


2. Other negative prenatal influences

Other negative forces may also effect an unborn child and expose it to demonic influence. A mother may resent or even hate the baby in her womb. Perhaps the mother is not married, or the father is unfaithful and irresponsible, or the mother may simply not want the child. One thing a baby longs for, both before and after it is born, is love. When it does not feel love, it will probably begin to feel unwanted. This will in turn expose it to a deeper wound: rejection. Many babies are born with a spirit of rejection already in them.

At one time in the U.S. I encountered an unusually large number of people in a certain age group who suffered from rejection. When I checked their birth dates, I discovered that these fell between 1929 and 1934... a time all older Americans remember as the Great Depression. I realized that mothers who were already having a hard time making ends meet resented the prospect of yet another mouth to feed. They may or may not have verbalized their resentment, but the sensitive little personalities in the womb felt it and came forth already carrying a spirit of rejection. This is just one of various demons that may affect an unborn child.

My own wife, Ruth, is a typical case. She was born in 1930, the eighth child in her family. Her parents were farmers who were struggling financially because of the Depression and the drought which caused that region of the U.S. to be labeled "the Dustbowl." At age forty Ruth was saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit and in water. She was already in the Lord's service when we married in 1978, yet she had an ongoing battle with rejection until the demon was identified and driven out. Even today she must be on her guard lest it assault her in a moment of weakness.


3. Pressures in early childhood

In James 3:16 we are warned,  ^"For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work."

Broken, strife-torn homes, in which parents are in bitter conflict with each other and/or have little time for their children, provide an atmosphere that invites the presence and activity of demons. Most young children lack the necessary emotional and spiritual defenses to withstand such demonic pressure. My personal observation (as I have said) is that most demonic problems begin in childhood.

In families in which the father has been an alcoholic, or cruel and dominating, or violent and abusive, girls often develop an intense hatred of men, which opens the door for a demon of hate. This is particularly true if the father has abused his daughters sexually.
 

Other demons that commonly exploit such children are rejection, anger, fear, rebellion, misery, loneliness, depression and sometimes suicide. In the West there has been an alarming increase in the number of teenage suicides. In the U.S., from 1952 to 1992, the incidence of suicide among adolescents and young adults nearly tripled. In 1992 more teenagers and young adults died from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, strokes, pneumonia, influenza and chronic lung disease combined. In almost all these cases, according to my diagnosis, the demon of rejection opened the way for the demon of suicide.


4. Emotional shock or sustained emotional pressure

In 1 Peter 3:6 the apostle explains "Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement." The Greek word translated "amazement" can also be translated as "terror." This particular word has a wide range of meanings. One lexicon describes it as "any vehement emotion; passionate excitement." Another renders it either actively as "intimidation" or passively as "terror."

Women often, but not always, have weaker emotional defenses than men. They are especially subject to fear. One woman I prayed for told me that the spirit of fear had entered her when a frightening automobile accident took place right in front of her. Today the vast coverage of the media means that millions around the world are exposed to sudden, shocking incidents. A brutal murder or a bus blown up or a building exploding may leave an indelible impression not only on the victims who survive, but on all the men, women, children who view the horror again and again on television.

Men as well as women are subject to many other forms of emotional pressure. Both men and women are subject, for example, to the passionate excitement of sexual desire. Sudden, unpremeditated yielding to such desire can often open the door to a spirit of lust. Indulging in sexual fantasies or watching pornography can have the same effect.

It sometimes happens, too, that a child or young person subjected to sexual assault may in that way unwittingly open up to a demon of lust. The demon has no respect for "innocence," but simply uses this moment of weakness to force its way in. From that moment on, the child or young person is subjected to pressures of lust that are not the expressions of anything in his or her character.

But it is not always a sudden surge of emotion that opens the way to a demon. It may be some persistent, unrelenting pressure. A man who through no fault of his own has to spend many weary months without employment may begin to brood over his inability to provide for his family. Discouragement may affect him in various ways. Some tactless remark by his wife or trivial disobedience by his children may provoke a sudden outburst and open the way for a demon of anger to slip in. Or the continuing pressure of enforced inactivity may open him up almost imperceptibly to a dark spirit of depression or hopelessness. Similarly a woman whose husband continually belittles and criticizes her may finally yield to a spirit of hopelessness. Or a mother seeking to protect her child from dangers that are often more imaginary than real may project a spirit of anxiety on the youngster, until the spirit forces its way in and takes up residence in the child. Obviously there are many kinds of emotional shock or pressure to which people may be subjected. But these few examples may alert you to this form of demonic attack and help you build up your defenses against it.


5. Sinful acts or habits

Sometimes a single decisive act may open the way for a demon. The decision of Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus was such an act. When he went out from the Last Supper with this intention, Luke records, "then Satan entered Judas" (Luke 22:3). Judas himself opened the door that he could not close afterward close.

Actions much less heinous than that of Judas may open the way for a demon. My late friend Don Basham was once praying for a woman who needed deliverance from a spirit of lust. When Don commanded the demon to come out of her, it answered, "She invited me in!!"
"When did she do that?" Don asked.
"When she went to that dirty sex movie," the demon replied.

The woman had to repent and ask forgiveness for her sin before the demon could be compelled to leave her. We need to remember that Satan is a legal expert. When some sinful act has opened the way for a demon, it will not leave until the sinful act has been confessed and canceled by God's forgiveness. Any act of deliberate wrongdoing may open the way for a demon. Many such acts are possible... telling a premeditated lie, for instance, or shoplifting, or cheating on exams. Again, it may not be a single act that opens the door. It may well be the deliberate, persistent practice of a sinful act that eventually becomes a habit. Secret sins like repeated masturbation or fornication or pornography almost inevitably open the way for demons. But other, more "respectable" habits can have a similar effect. Frequent overeating opens the way for a demon of gluttony. Persistent daydreaming opens the door to a spirit of fantasy. Habitual exaggeration in conversation opens the way for a lying spirit.


6. Laying on of hands

Laying hands on a person in prayer is not just a picturesque religious ritual. It can be a powerful spiritual experience, a temporary interaction between two spirits through which supernatural power is released. Normally the power flows from the one laying on hands to the one on whom hands are laid, but at times it can flow the other way.

The power may do either good or evil. It may emanate from the Holy Spirit or from a demon, depending on the one from whom it flows. For this reason Paul established certain safeguards. "Lay hands suddenly on no man," he wrote, "neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure.(1 Timothy 5:22). In other words, be careful with whom you allow your spirit to interact!

The laying on of hands should be done reverently and prayerfully. Any person participating should make sure he or she is not thereby, in Paul's words, sharing in another person's sins. It is a mistake to turn a group of people loose and encourage them to lay hands indiscriminately on one another. The following brief testimony from Ruth illustrates the danger:

In 1971 I was attending a charismatic meeting, and the speaker asked the people to stand if they wanted prayer for healing. I had a bad cold, so I stood. He then instructed people seated nearby to lay their hands on us and pray for our healing. Four or five prayed for me.

When I awoke the next morning, my cold was better... but my fingers were all curled up and stiff and hurting. Immediately I thought, Someone with arthritis laid hands on me last night! I renounced the spirit of arthritis, and within five minutes all the symptoms were gone. I was a very young believer, less than one year old, and I have been so grateful to God for teaching me then to be careful who lays hands on me.


7. Idle words

This is an area in which many of us are caught off guard, yet one about which Jesus gave us some of His most solemn warnings.

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.(Matthew 12:36,37)

What are "idle words"? They are words we utter thoughtlessly, words that do not express our real thoughts or intentions. When we are called in question concerning such words, we often excuse ourselves by saying, "I didn't really mean it," or, I was only joking," as though this releases us from responsibility. Yet it is precisely these idle words that Jesus warns us against.

The fact that many Christians are habitually guilty of speaking idle words does not make it less serious. In fact, anyone who considers this warning of Jesus to be unimportant needs to repent. Idle words can open the door to demons. In a fit of exasperation may say, "I'm sick and tired" of whatever it may be. He does not mean it literally, but he may be opening the door to a demon of sickness or tiredness. Words concerning death are particularly dangerous. Many time people say, "I nearly died laughing," or, "You'll die when you hear this one!" Death is a dark, evil power, and we are foolish to treat it lightly.

In a temporary fit of grief or discouragement, a person will often say, "I wish I were dead," or, "I'd be better of dead." Words like that are a direct invitation to a spirit of death. I have ministered to hundreds of people who opened themselves up to the spirit of death by such words carelessly spoken.


Making Jesus Lord

These seven examples illustrate some of the ways we and our children may be exposed to demonic influence. We need to remember, too, that demons are extremely persistent. A demon may be driven

out but still seek to force its way in again. Jesus warned of this:

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. (Matthew 12:43-45)


The unclean spirit returns to "his house"...that is, the person it formerly occupied... and it finds it "empty, swept, and garnished." Then it takes "seven other spirits more wicked than himself," reenters the house with them and occupies it once again.

What was there about "the house" that opened the way for the demon to reenter? The house was "swept"... that was no problem. It was "garnished"... that was no problem, either. But it was "empty"... that was the problem! The man had left his house vacant. He had never taken Jesus in to be his Lord.

When a person commits himself to Jesus as his Lord, he can look to Jesus for supernatural power to keep demons out. But without Jesus as Lord, he does not have the strength to protect his "house." When the demon assaults him, it may quickly break down his ineffective resistance. Then, when the demon reenters, it brings with it seven other demons, each more wicked than itself, and the person is worse off than he was before.

Let me illustrate with an example that became vivid to me. In the 1960s I generally traveled by car with Lydia to my preaching assignments in the U.S. Sometimes this meant a journey of two or three days. At evening, as we drove into a city, we would look for a neon sign with one word: Vacancy. When we saw that sign, we knew there was a motel open to receive us. In the spiritual realm, Satan's demons roam around looking for the same sign: Vacancy. When they see it, they say to themselves, Ah! Here's a person who hasn't made Jesus Lord of his life. Perhaps we'll be able to force our way in. There is only one safeguard: making sure Jesus truly is Lord of every area of your life.


I'm going to add some more to this... As I mentioned in the previous post, there are several gates by which demons find entry into our lives. The gate of the eye, which involves what we watch and read. The gate of the ear which involves what we hear. The gate of the mouth which involves what we say. However, in briefly touching upon what the Lord has allowed me to see and experience concerning the methods of demons, I'd like to share a little about the deceptions of entertainment.

Entertain:
1. to hold the attention of pleasantly or agreeably; divert; amuse.
2. to have as a guest; provide food, lodging, etc., for; show hospitality to.
3. to admit into the mind; consider:
4. to hold in the mind; harbor; cherish:

Most forms of worldly entertainment are specifically designed to hold your attention, while simultaneously opening windows and doors to the spirits connected to that particular form of entertainment. I've posted a short video clip at the bottom of this post so that you may see this method in action with your own eyes. In the 70s, the world stampeded the movie theaters desiring to be "entertained" by a movie called The Exorcist. Most people left those theaters demonized. Some couldn't even watch the movie in its entirety. Many had to be carried out. To this day, I refuse to watch that movie, though I have seen several infamous clips over the years. The video below does not contain any scenes from the movie. However a piece of the theme from the movie plays for the entirety of the 3:39min length of the video. At the 1:36 mark a portion of the possessed girl's face flashes for 7 seconds in unison with the theme. Afterward an interviewer gets commentary from the movie goers leaving the lobby after seeing the film.

You don't need me to tell you that most of the garbage that comes out of Hollywood is blasphemous, antichrist, or entrenched in the occult. Many of these movies are not only accursed... but many of the actors have no qualms about opening themselves up to a demonic spirit in order to achieve an acting goal. People of God, there have been people involved with some of these accursed films that have either died during their productions or not long afterward. There comes a point in time that Satan's system demands sacrifice... 

While the audience is being entertained by fear, the demons associated with these films and the atmosphere they create are present... watching, waiting, looking for a way in. In a moment of intense terror, the windows are opened and a spirit of fear will cease the opportunity... probably entering in through either the gate of the eye or the ear. This spirit will act as a strong man holding that gate or door open for other spirits to enter in as well. Friends, there was a time when many of these horror movies were specifically aimed at children. I can remember watching movies like The Gate... which tells the story of how some kids accidentally open a gate to the demon realm. There was Cameron's Closet... again, this was basically about a 10 year old boy fighting a horrific demon that took up residence in his closet.  There was Gremlins (demons), Child's Play (possessed doll), Troll, and Stephen King's infamous "IT", which was about a demon in the shape of a clown that terrorized a group of young children and even followed them into adulthood forcing a reunion and confrontation.

In the 90s there was a T.V. series that aired in the afternoon called Goosebumps, and later Are You Afraid of the Dark. It was basically a horror series for children similar to the Twilight Zone or Tales From The Darkside. We're talking about children between 6 and 8! Your enemy the Devil was successful in demonizing a lot of children at an early age. However, he knows that your average Christian will not entertain this kind of blatant demonic filth... nor will they suffer their children to see it. But my friends, you must settle this reality in your heart. Satan is a master deceiver. Your enemy is a master of seduction and disguise. Without complete reliance upon the Holy Ghost for spiritual discernment, YOU. WILL. BE. DECIEVED! We all have been at different points in time and to different degrees.  For example, your average Sunday morning Christian would never fool around with tools pertaining to witchcraft such as Ouija (weegie) boards. (Even though they are sold as toys that can still be picked up at Walmart, Target, and even Toysrus if I'm not mistaken.) Yet how many Christians completely immerse themselves in the Harry Potter books and movies, which are blatantly about witchcraft and sorcery? Your average church goer would never go to a witch asking that a spirit may be channeled... yet how many Christians are smitten with the Twilight series which was channeled through the author Stephenie Meyer by a demonic spirit? She has stated herself that she had no prior interest in vampires at all, and that the initial concept came to her through a vivid dream... furthermore, after the dream she was compelled by voices in her head that would not be silent until she began to write. After she finished the first book she has stated that she was visited by "Edward" and he was terrifying. On top of all of that, she is also a Mormon. Your average Christian would never go to a fortune teller for direction... yet how many Christians fool around with zodiac signs and horoscopes. Even if it's just for fun, it's the equivalent of playing around with any other tool of the occult just for fun.

Here is the video clip from the documentary I previously spoke of. As I mentioned earlier...a piece of the theme from the movie plays for the entirety of the 3:39min length of the video. At the 1:36 mark a portion of the possessed girl's face flashes for 7 seconds in unison with the theme. Afterward an interviewer gets commentary from the movie goers leaving the lobby after seeing the film.