© Copyright 2007 by Phil Scovell - All Rights Reserved
58
Where Demons Dwell
You Might Be Surprised
By Phil Scovell
"Run back to the house and get me a couple of aspirin, his dad
instructed. "I've got a headache.
The boy ran to the house, but as he did so, he found himself
dreaded being in his own house alone. Every step became more
difficult as he drew closer.
Upon arrival, he burst through the door near panic. After
getting the aspirin, he bolted for the door and crashed out the door
and back outside again. He was free and running back to the field.
He was nearly 50 years of age before he learned why he was frightened
as a little boy in his own house.
This wasn't the only house, and the only time, the man had been
afraid, as a young boy. We discovered the presents of demonic
personalities in more than one house he lived in but as we narrowed
the focus on what was going on in these memories, it was clear the
demons were not directly related to him personally. His mother was
perpetually depressed and back in those days, little was said, or
done, about it. In other words, people suffered in silence. Yet, the
little boy knew his mom was hurting some how and he could not
understand it nor did he feel he could do anything for her. His
father was harsh and there was an element of deep seeded anger in the
boy's father that he could not understand. He felt it, though, and
the demonic influence was penetrating. A multiplicity of feelings and
thoughts cycled amorphously through his mind but he was unable to
understand the conflicting thoughts and feelings.
One day, as we prayed together, one of the farm houses surfaced
as a memory. They had lived in more than one house on the property.
He recalled that he was deathly fearful of the attic in one house. I
personally recalled, not so much as a child but as an adult man, the
experience of such unknown fear, so I knew the feelings he was trying
to describe. It was pretty clear, just from my questioning, that the
demons were resident to the house and not directly related to this man
as a child growing up but I never just assume; I pray. Upon asking
the Lord to expand the memory event so we could see what He sees, and
so we could know what He knows, the man said there were a number of
demons in the attic. Actually, over a period of prayer sessions, we
discovered demons dwelling throughout the entire house.
Often the feeling of an evil presence is a sudden flush of
anxiety. It can also seem as if there has been a sudden change in
just the ambiance of the room. It may also be just a simple instant
sense of unidentified awareness. Commonly, people describe an
unexpected chill as if they almost just entered into a walk-in
freezer. They may even experience goose bumps for no reason. Some
describe a quick blur, something like a shadow, out of the corner of
their eye. People describe thoughts, even to the point of a voice,
that suddenly enters their consciousness. Others say there is a
abrupt change in smell. No, I am not joking. Based upon the degree
of fear a lying spirit can create due to the persons level of current
deception, I have had some people tell me that they were physically
touched. It can, and does, get a lot worse, too. Add, for example, a
Ouija board, a seance or two, meditation, and a few other occultic and
cultic practices and you'll get the picture pretty quick where demons
dwell.
I prayed with a lady once who had three things occur sequentially
as we prayed. Suddenly, she reported, when I asked the Lord to show
us what we needed to see, a migraine headache instantly came upon her.
I called the demon to attention, commanded him to stop in Jesus name,
and she said, "My head just stopped hurting." I asked Jesus again to
reveal to her what He wanted her to know. "Now," she immediately
reported, "I feel ice cold." I repeated my command again. Her body
temperature returned to normal. A third time I prayed, asking the
same thing, and she said, "Now it sounds like someone is putting their
hands over my ears." I told the demon to stop it in Jesus name and
then commanded he confess what right he had to be there. No answer.
I knew he wouldn't answer because he had been in the prayer sessions
with this lady before and if he spoke, he knew that I would know why
he thought he had the right to remain. So, instead, I had a sudden
inspiration, a leading of the Holy Spirit, and so I said, "Lord? We
have a lying spirit here who is trying to hinder what you are doing in
this woman's life. Jesus? I want him to stop what he is doing and
right now. In fact," I suddenly said without prier thought, "if he
puts his hands over her ears again, I want you to burn his fingers
with fire." The woman began laughing immediately. I asked her what
was so funny. She reported that she saw a small child sized figure
running away, yelling and screaming, because his hands were on fire.
I then ask the Lord to reveal His truth, the woman heard, and was
healed of that particular problem.
I walked downstairs into our basement one night as an adult and I
entered the utility room. My office was in the basement and my ham
radio station was in that office so I had been in the basement a great
deal, even at night, sometimes all night, and never felt anything
wrong at any time. This night, however, as I walked alone into the
utility room to get something, I forget just what now, I felt a sudden
fear, or anxiety, but immediately emotionally shrugged it off as if I
were brushing an insect off my arm. Besides, at that time, I didn't
believe that demons could bother Christians. Although I am blind, I
knew the lights were not on in the basement but that, in and of
itself, should have made no difference.
As I entered the darkened room, the air itself felt thick and
almost tangible. Then, without warning, I felt as if someone was
behind me and placing their hand on my shoulder. I shivered as if
winter just blew in the door. Frankly, just telling about it gave me
goose bumps as I typed. I snickered out loud to demonstrate to
myself, and to whatever it was that was there, that I wasn't afraid.
The truth was, I, indeed, was. When I left the basement and headed
upstairs, the feeling left. I just figured it was my hyperactive
Christian imagination. I learned many years later, while praying with
my son, it wasn't. In fact, that house we rented had at least one
resident demonic presence, and likely more than one. Demons are like
mice. Where there is one, there are a lot more you haven't seen.
They know how to hide so you better learn, if you are going to pray
with people, how to reply upon the Lord to find them.
The demonic persona can be much more pronounced than any of these
descriptions. In fact, I have previously written about one experience
I had where a demon pretended to be one of our dogs. I awakened in
the middle of the night and after using the bathroom, I went to the
kitchen to get a drink. I heard, on the hardwood floor, the clicking
of the toenails and knew one of our dogs had heard me and gotten up to
follow me into the kitchen thinking he'd have a late night snack.
After getting my drink of water, I called to him, and not knowing
which dog it was, we have several, I slapped my leg a couple of times
to get him to come to me. That always gets their attention because
they think I'm going to give them some food. He stayed over by the
refrigerator and refused to come. I was too sleepy to bother trying
to catch him and figuring he'd follow me back to the bedroom anyhow, I
walked out of the kitchen. I never heard him follow. The next
morning, I asked my wife which dog she had forgotten to hook up to one
of the tie down leashes. She said she had hooked them all up that
night. We do this so they can, if they wish, get into bed, but they
can't roam around the house at night. I laughed when she told me and
explained to her what had happened that night. The demon, by the way,
playing the role of a dog, didn't speak or put his feelings on me,
because he couldn't. Why? If he had done some, he knew that I would
instantly have recognized he was a demon and the name of the game,
when it comes to demonic influence, is attempting to gain a handhold
so he can gain a foothold, and eventually a stronghold. I don't play
their twisted demonic games any longer but that doesn't stop them from
trying. By the way, as I attempted getting, what I thought was a dog,
to come to me, I felt the Lord identifying what it really was. This
was another reason why I did not attempt to walk over, pick up the
dog, and carry him back to bed with me; I knew it wasn't a dog I
heard.
I was praying with a lady once that came to a place of healing in
her life but was suddenly blocked. As we prayed around this memory,
Jesus revealed the problem. There were demons resident in this
hospital room. Speaking to the Lord Jesus, I asked if they had a
right to be in this lady's memory of this event. They said, "We have
always been hear." That was likely true, however, they had to admit,
after further prayer, that they had no right in this woman's life
other than to frighten her. Once the lies were exposed in the memory,
Jesus cleansed the memory of the demon presence as we prayed and
replaced the demonic personages with beautiful blooming flowers. The
woman could even smell them. And you thought God didn't have a sense
of humor. I've seen Him do a lot funnier things with demons. He
loves showing them whose boss and I love watching Him do it, too.
As I prayed with the man who grew up on a farm, we found, as I
mentioned, demons were everywhere but mostly inside the houses on the
property. Many prayer sessions revealed the demonic presence of lying
spirits and we prayed for the Lord's truth to be revealed in every
case.
One prayer session was a little different. As we prayed, one of
the demons, speaking into the thoughts of the man with whom I prayed,
said "We live here." Well, after several prayer sessions and all the
demons we found, that was a given but something occurred to me. By
that I mean, something was spoken into my thoughts by the Holy Spirit
and that was, "These demons think they own the land." That made sense
but I said nothing of this to the man at all. We continued praying in
and around this, and other memories. Finally, at one point, the man
said, "They say they own this land where our farm is." I nearly
laughed out loud. I explained to him they probably did believe
exactly that due to their evil assignment. Regardless, I knew what
they said was a lie. We prayed, sent the lying spirits away, and
after each prayer session, the man experienced more and more peace
until all the houses he had lived in were clear and free of any
demonic influence as far as he and his memories were concerned. He
told me that this all made sense now because, when they first moved on
to the farm land, they found hundreds of empty beer bottles and such
paraphernalia on the grounds around the house. As a child, he often
wondered what type of people must have lived there before his family
moved in. By the way, you might be wondering what the lie was? The
lie was that they lived there and owned the land. Fat chance. They
own nothing because Jesus does and Jesus only shares His things with
us; demons don't count. In other words, they have no glory of their
own. Too bad; so sad and who cares.
Several months later, he went back on a vacation to see his dad
on the farm. All the houses no longer frightened him. Even walking
around the farm land, he felt nothing but spiritual tranquility.
My daughter-in-law grew up in a haunted house as a teenager, that
is, there was a resident demon who thought he had the right to live
there. As she and my son were building the house, they lived in our
basement. I was going through a desperate time of anxiety and panic
attacks, as well as hearing voices, at the time. You can read about
it in my personal testimony called, "I Flew Kites With Jesus," and
learn more about that period of my life. In short, I was under a
demonic attack and in those days, I didn't know what to do about it.
My daughter-in-law told me that when she let her dogs out late at
night, she always felt as if somebody was walking behind her. One
night, she turned around quickly, and saw a shadowy figure that
disappeared in a split second. After we had several friends from the
church we were attending come over, some who knew how to conduct
spiritual warfare, my daughter-in-law reported she had no more such
feelings but felt safe instead.
I have a son who also reported a similar experience and reported
the dark figure standing in his room was not only quite distinct, but
it stayed in place for a long time as he tried to figure out what it
was he was seeing. He literally thought it was a person in the
darkened room. He has multiple black belts in Karate and after
speaking to the figure, he initiated a kick at the figure and it
vaporized before his foot could make contact. He was so shaken by
this event, he walked through the basement into the apartment where my
daughter and her husband were living at the time to tell them what
just happened. It was then he realized it had been a real demon and
why the demon was there. My daughter sneaked a girlfriend into the
house to spend the night without our permission. They were both drug
users at the time and living far outside God's protection.
A relative grew up in a haunted house. He told me several
experiences he had as a boy. One night they were coming home late as
a family. They had turned out all the lights to save on electricity.
As they drove up to the house, they saw that a light had been left on
in one of the upper bedrooms. The father said, "Who left the light
on? I thought we turned them all off when leaving." Everybody in the
car said all the lights had been out when they left. As they drove up
to the house, that light went out.
He told me that he was awakened one night because something was
trying to pull him bodily out of his bed. There was nothing there.
Another night, and this happened often, he said, there would suddenly
be a sharp bang as if someone had taken their hand and slapped a desk
or table top. Since no one was expecting it, everybody would jump.
I can hear somebody saying, "Isn't something like this a
poltergeist?"
"You mean, a ghost?"
"Yeh. Isn't this a ghost living in a house?"
"No, silly. They are demons. If you think they are ghost,
whatever you do, don't start praying with people. You may be
unpleasantly surprised."
A man I know who has done a great deal of counseling relating to these
forms of demon intrusion, told me that one evening, his son came
running upstairs. He had been frightened to the point of panic. As
they helped him calm down, he explained that he was using the family
computer and as he was looking at the screen, suddenly a devil's head
appeared and filled the entire screen.
This same man told me that at one period of time his ministry
began to dwindle. Money became tight and after awhile, he finally
realized that perhaps he should be praying about it just in case. The
Holy Spirit told him that there was something, a physical object,
causing the problem. The next day he found a heavy metal rock tape in
his car. He asked his two boys about it. One of them said a boy at
the public school they attended gave him the tape to try out. My
friend instructed his son to return it that day. After a few days and
experiencing no change in his ministry, but rather things continued
downward, he asked his son if he had returned the tape. His son said
he forgot. The tape was returned the next day. My counselor friend
said, that day, that very day, his phone began to ring after several
weeks of silence. The very first call was a lady who felt burden to
give his ministry several hundred dollars. His phone continued to
ring on a regular bases until he was booked for days in advance.
Why do such things occur to some and not to others? Why do some
experience deep dark depression, anxiety attacks, suffer from multiple
personalities, hear voices, and have other such experiences that
hinder their life? Good question and one I considered many times
before I felt there was a noticeable pattern in the prayer sessions I
witnessed as an intercessor. I believe the answer is based upon a
person's individual spiritual calling of ministry to the Body of
Christ. I am not referring to a full time ministry position in a
church but a station of calling within the Body of Christ itself. It
is my opinion that we are the plan God has for this world and for His
own people. If you read 1 Corinthians 12, it is clear the Body of
Christ is a complete unit and Jesus is the head, or chief cornerstone,
and that unless we function as one, we will not experience the
totality of God's fullness.
"Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God," Ephesians
5:21).
"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do
nothing," (John 15:5).
"Do I hunt for demons in prayer sessions?" I don't need to. If
they are there, they will manifest but only if they are exposed. Most
try and hide and especially if they get the idea that the intercessor,
doing the praying, knows his authority in Christ. As I said, I don't
need to look for demons because I look for lies. Often times I am
unable to even recognize the lies but Jesus has no trouble revealing
them at all. Behind ever lie there is a demon, or at the very least,
confusion. Even if there is confusion present, the Enemy will attempt
to take advantage of the tender spot in our life. So the key isn't
hunting down demon, it is looking for lies. Where there is guilt,
fear, anxiety, panic, suicidal thoughts, condemnation, shame,
sometimes even embarrassment, anger, rage, bitterness, doubt, a
blockage, emptiness, heaviness, grief, inferiority, insignificance,
abuse, unconfessed sin, intimidation, control, threatenings,
manipulation, domination, a sense of loss, loneliness, prolonged
sadness, arrogance, egotism, pride, indifference, chronic frustration,
perfectionism, a feeling of being over powered, the deep seeded
feeling of, "If people really knew me, they wouldn't like me,"
ostracism, rejection, panic, circular thinking, habitual feelings of
brokenness, oppression, embedded accusations, or just deep emotional
pain of any type, there is most likely a lie behind the negative
feeling and if there is a lie, the Enemy is responsible. This is why
the Bible tells us to "take every thought captive" in 2 Corinthians
10:5.
"Does this mean a demon is inside of me? No. If you are a
Christian, the answer is definitely no. If you are not a Christian,
it is up for grabs but I have a tendency not to believe even that is
possible. "Why?" Well, we only have one Biblical record of a man
being demon possessed and that was Judas who betrayed Jesus. The
Bible said that after Satan entered into him, he went out and betrayed
Christ. (See John 13:27). Yes, for you Bible students, there are
several other places in the New Testament which mention people were
demon possessed, or possessed of demons, in the King James Translation
but the Greek word for "possessed" of demons means demonized. That is
a whole lot different than Satan, or a demon, enter into a person.
"So what is going on with these so-called demon possessed people
then?" Manipulation, control, and domination of their minds. Yes,
this means even to the point of bodily control at times; plenty of
Biblical records recording such events. Jesus healed all of them that
came to him, however, so you tell me what was going on. Besides, does
it make a difference? If so, what is that difference? Explain
please. While you are thinking about it, let's continue.
How much do you work at being a Christian? That's a fair
question, I think, because I was raised that once you were born again,
you had to work at being a good Christian. This made God happy, of
course, and you never wanted to get on His bad side so living a holy
life, normally a list of things you didn't do as a Christian and if
you ran out of things not to do, going to movies, smoking, cussing,
chewing and so on, then you could always make a list of good things
you did. So any time, therefore, you felt discouragement, guilt,
unhappy, down, blue, red or black, or sinful, you could mentally whip
out your list, either list or both worked best, and run through
everything. If you still felt spiritually bad for some reason,
reading your Bible for several hours should help and if that didn't
work, going to church surely would. Well, sometimes it didn't. In
fact, if you were raised in a church like I was, sometimes you felt
worse after going to church than before you went. This was, of
course, a good thing, spiritually speaking, we were taught, because
Jesus chastised you because he loved you and if He did not chastise,
or punish you, well, then, you just weren't a Christian. We were told
that Hebrews 12:5-11 taught this. It teaches no such thing, of
course, but admittedly it does make for mighty good, controlling,
manipulating, preaching and generally guilt worked when nothing else
did. So, pastors? If you want to score points, preach on the
chastisement of the Lord as a proof of true salvation and it will be a
hit. You might throw in tithing, too, because if you yell loud enough
about it, the offerings will go up so that's always a winner.
Besides, anybody knows that if you give more, you are definitely a
better Christian and God is happier, too. Of course, we all realize
God doesn't need our money but why not throw some His way once and
awhile. Surely He will notice. Other than that, I'm sure, if you are
a creative Christian, you will think of many things to please God. I
even got rid of my TV once for 3 years and refused to allow my wife to
wear slacks during that time. I never felt more spiritual and God
only knows why I wouldn't let my wife wear slacks, she wore dresses
and skirts however, and what that all has to do with television, I'll
never know, but I was sure God saw my heart and blessed me for it.
The biggest thing, of course, was staying away from the devil. I
didn't want anything to do with him in the first place so staying away
from him, I figured, was the easy part. Wrong! One of my Bible
college professors even said once, "If you leave the Devil alone,
he'll leave you alone." I believed it, too. I found out just how
wrong that was years later and after a lot of unnecessary suffering,
too. Thanks for nothing prof.
"So where do we go from here?" Good question. Why don't we just
let Jesus do all the heavy lifting for us? After all, that's exactly
what we did to get saved. I mean, we couldn't save our self. Right?
We had to call upon His name to be born again but other than that, we
did nothing. Right? You bet! So why are we still trying to figure
out our own salvation after all this time, I wonder? Is it possible,
just possible, we might be deceived into believing lies about
ourselves? Oh, things like, "You aren't doing enough. You aren't
spiritual enough. You don't pray enough. You don't read the Bible
enough. You don't fast enough. You don't go to church enough. You
have to much sex with your wife and what you do when making love with
your wife is sinful anyway. It is because you have lust in your
heart. Nobody likes you anyway. Those sins you committed when
younger and those last week? No Christian would be caught dead even
thinking such things. You know what Jesus said; if you've lusted in
your heart, it is the same thing as really committing adultery in the
first place. What about that lie you told. You weren't sick when you
called in sick and told your boss. Liars don't, can't, go to Heaven.
That means you. Besides, you gave up and God won't let anybody into
Heaven who gave up. You aren't qualified, dignified, rectified,
glorified, deified, humblized, eternalized, justified, minimized, (He
must increase but I must decrease, John 3:30), purified, or
mummified." That last one I threw in because it rhymed but now that I
think about it, it fits because you could apply it to dying to self
and if you haven't done that, well, then, who knows what you are;
certainly not Christian. Need I continue or have you figured out the
devil still lies even if you are a born again Christian? If you don't
think so, ask Adam and Eve, the two smartest people who ever lived,
and they'll tell you what cow ate the cabbage. I have no idea what
that conundrum means but a friend of mine says it all the time and it
seems to fit just about anything so I found a chance to use it here
and did.
"So, what does all this have to do with demonic influence,
oppression, and possession? We are told in Scripture not to give
place to the devil, (See Ephesians 4:27). If you are attempting to be
a good Christian, you are not only working too hard but if you keep it
up, you'll eventually give the Enemy way too much room in which to
operate. When that happens, you begin to believes lies. Oh, they
don't sound like lies in your thoughts because they often feel true.
Things such as, "You aren't a good Christian. If people knew who you
really were, they wouldn't like you. You deserve that guilt you have
felt for 35 years because what you did, although forgiven, must be
paid for and you have to pay for it." I trust you see these are
really lies regardless of how much they may feel like the truth. The
bottom line is, learn the difference between the voice of the Lord and
that of a stranger, the Enemy, (See John 10:4. As I said, let Jesus
do all the heavy lifting. He likes it anyway. All you have to do is
walk. That's a pretty natural thing to do, wouldn't you say? As you
are walking through life, keep your ears open for the voice of the
Lord and you will discover just how natural it becomes as you learn
how to be God aware.