How Demons Attack Advanced Believers

from

Appendix

from War On the Saints
by Jesse Penn-Lewis
Extracts from an article contributed to an American paper
and reprinted in "The Christian" some years ago.
We do not know the writer's name.

1. THE MANIFESTATION OF DEMON POWER.

The agency of demons is always brought more conspicuously into notice, in proportion to the manifestation and power of God's work among souls. When the Son of God was manifest in the flesh, it called forth the activity and outspoken agency of demons more than ever before.

2. VARIOUS KINDS OF DEMONS.

Demons are of a multiplied variety. They are of various types, greater in diversity than human beings, and these demons always seek to possess a person congenial to them in some characteristic. The Bible tells us of unclean demons, witchcraft and fortune-telling demons, of insanity, of drunkenness, of gluttony, of idleness, of wonder or miracle working, of despotic demons, theological demons, screeching and yelling demons. There are demons that act more particularly on the body, or some organ or appetite of the body. There are others that act more directly upon the intellect, or the sensibilities, and emotions, and affections. There are others of a higher order that act directly on man's spiritual nature, upon the conscience, or the spiritual perceptions. These are the ones that act as angels of light, and side-track and delude many who are real Christians.

3. HOW DEMONS FASTEN ON HUMAN BEINGS.

They seek out those whose make-up and temperament is most congenial to themselves and then seek to fasten themselves on to some part of the body, or brain, or some appetite, or some faculty of the mind, either the reason, or imagination, or perception; and when they get access, they bury themselves into the very structure of the person, so as to identify themselves with the personality of the one they possess. In a great many instances they do not get possession of the individual, but obtain such a hold on some part of the mind as to torment the person with periodical attacks of something strange and abnormal, out of all proportion to the general character and make-up of the individual.

4. THE OBJECT OF DEMONS SEEKING HUMAN BEINGS.

These demons feed themselves on the person with whom they are allied... There are allusions in Scripture, and facts gathered from experience, sufficient to prove that certain varieties of demons live on the juices in human blood...

5. THE CLASS OF DEMONS WHICH ATTACK ADVANCED CHRISTIANS.

There are religious demons, not holy, but nevertheless religious, and filled with a devilish form of religion which is the counterfeit of true, deep spirituality. These pseudo-religious demons very rarely attack young beginners, but they hover around persons who advance into deeper experiences, and seek every opportunity to fasten themselves upon the conscience, or the spiritual emotions of persons of high states of grace, and especially if they are of a vivid or energetic temperament. These are the demons that play havoc among many professors of holiness. One way they get hold of persons is as follows: A soul goes through a great struggle, and is wonderfully blessed. Floods of light and emotion sweep through the being. The shore lines are all cut. The soul is launched out into a sea of extravagant experience. At such a juncture these demons hover round the soul, and make strange suggestions to the mind of something odd, or outlandish, or contrary to common sense or decent taste. They make these suggestions under the profession of being the Holy Ghost. They fan the emotions, and produce a strange, fictitious exhilaration, which is simply their bait to get into some faculty of the soul...

6. SOME EXAMPLES OF HOW DEMONS TAKE HOLD OF SPIRIT-FILLED CHRISTIANS.

A very holy and useful woman says, that soon after receiving the baptism of the Spirit, there came to her one night in the church, a wild abnormal impulse to throw the hymn-book at the preacher, and to run over the church screaming; and it took all her will power to keep her hand from throwing that book, but she had common sense to know that the Holy Spirit was not the author of such a suggestion. If she had yielded to that sudden feeling, it would have likely given that fanatical demon admission to her emotional nature and ruined her life-work. She is a person who knows the mighty demonstrations of the Holy Spirit, and understands God sufficiently to know He is not the source of wild and indecent conduct...

Another person said he felt like rolling on the floor, and groaning and pulling the chairs around, but he distinctly perceived that the impulse to do so had something wild in it; and a touch of self-display contrary to the gentleness and sweetness of Jesus; and, as quick as he saw it was an attack of a false spirit, he was delivered. But another man had the same impulse, and fell down groaning and roaring, beating the floor with his hands and feet, and the demon entered into him as the angel of light, and got him to think that his conduct was of the Holy Ghost, and it became a regular habit in the meetings he attended, until he would ruin every religious meeting he was in...

7. THE MOST DANGEROUS CLASS OF DEMONS.

It requires great humility to try these spirits and detect the false ones. Other demons in existence are those pseudo pious ones who SOAR ROUND THE HIGH ALTITUDES OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, like eagles around great mountain tops, and seek to fasten their talons upon the lofty and conspicuous prey. These are the demons of spiritual pride, of religious ambition, of false prophetic vision, of strained and far-fetched illuminations, of wild fantastic notions. These are the demons that flit over the sunlit regions in the land of Canaan, and attack very seldom any but advanced believers.

8. SOME EFFECTS OF DEMON INFLUENCE.

The effects of being influenced by this sort of demons are manifold, and plainly legible to a well-poised mind. They cause people to run off into things that are odd and foolish, unreasonable and indecent. It leads them to adopt a peculiar voice or twang, or unnatural shouting, or some shaking of the body, or such an influence is manifested by peculiar heresies in the mind, of which there is a nameless variety. It produces a certain wildness in the eye, and harshness in the voice. Such persons invariably break the law of love, and severely condemn people who do not conform to themselves. As a rule such persons lose their flesh, for demoniac possession is very wearing on the vital forces and produce a terrible strain on the heart and nervous system.


[14.7] Light on "Abnormal" Experiences
π
[14.9] The Scriptural Basis for "Warfare" Against the Powers of Darkness
Appendix - Table of Contents
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