An Unseen Presence

It doesn't take much faith to believe in the natural world we see all around us each day when we wake up and walk outside like I did this beautiful autumn morning.  The sun was shining and the air was crisp with just a hint of a breeze from the north.  What could a man require or want more than God's green earth?

The problem is ... it's not just the earth we need to be aware of.  There's an unseen presence that the average man finds hard to believe or accept, simply because he doesn't want to think about it.  What is it?  He's not alone.  There's something dark and evil lurking on this planet ... it's called the Spirit World.

John Wesley said ... "The Spirit World is dark unto us, but we lie open to it."

I have been a believer in the Spirit World ever since the age of four.  I was an unwilling believer.  At the tender young age of four, I had absolutely no defense against the fear and torment the demonic powers inflicted upon my young heart and mind after the death of my mother. 

Daytime wasn't a problem ... it was in the dark ... at night, after I was asleep.  There was nothing I could do except scream.  At the foot of my bed, something would climb up out of a hole just large enough for this ugly, hairy creature with long arms and fingers to grab me by my legs and start pulling me down into this hole from which he came.  He had an evil laugh, and I remember seeing and smelling the smoke and fire deep within.  I could feel the heat rising up and hear people crying and screaming in what sounded like torturous, agonizing suffering as I felt myself starting to be pulled downward into the underworld.  I somehow knew it was Hell.

Each time this happened to me, I wasn't pulled very far into this hole or tunnel, maybe only five or six feet downward ... when someone real strong reached down and grabbed hold of me and lifted me back out.  He always said to the creature that had me ... "No!  You can't have him, he's mine."  Then I would wake up in my bed screaming for my mother.  But she wasn't there.

I didn't learn until much later, years in fact, that my young soul was being attacked by demonic spirits trying to make me believe I had no choice ... that I was destined for Hell.  My mother was gone ... God took her ... and she was never coming back.  I would never see her again, I would never hear her warm comforting voice when I was afraid, or hear her laugh again at silly things I did.  When the devastation of death comes, especially to a child, he or she is left in a vulnerable position not only for emotional distress, but they are also left open for spiritual attacks by Satan.

I am writing about ... an unseen presence ... but what I saw and felt was just as real as my mother's death.  You can call it a dream if you like, but you would be wrong. 

There is a Spirit World and I found out just how real it is.

Six months or so went by with only a few more frightful nights of spiritual attacks.  I really can't remember how many there were.  During this time my father had met a very nice single Christian woman ... and as things progressed, dad had a new wife and I had a new mother.  I didn't know it at the time, but now I had a powerful new weapon that was soon to be loosed on that evil unseen presence.
   
With-in two weeks of her arrival in our home, the demonic powers were at it again ... trying to pull me down into hell.  Again I woke up screaming ... but this time ... the voice and arms of a Spirit filled believer were there to support and comfort my young heart and soul.  It didn't take her long to sense what was happening.  You see, a blood bought, Holy Spirit filled believer can feel and perceive when the power of darkness is around.

I don't know exactly how or what she did, other than go to prayer and take control of the situation by commanding these evil spirits, through the power that is in the name of Jesus to leave me alone, and never come back.  And they never did.  She brought with her the authority of Jesus' name and established it into our lives.

Dear ones ... there is a God, and there is a devil ... I know, for I have dealt with his demons before I was ready for them.  I don't have problems with them any more.  I learned from the Word of God this statement of fact ... "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world."  (1st John 4:4)

So ... what are demons and where did they come from?  Demons are disembodied spirits.  What is that?  Disembodied spirits are fallen angels who had their angelic bodies taken away from them by God, because they left the spiritual realm and tried to operate in the natural world as if they were man.  (Genesis 6:4)

Consider the following two verses ...

Jude 1:6 ... "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."

2nd Peter 2:4 ... "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment ..."

The key to understanding what Jude and Peter spoke about are in the almost identical phrases they used ... "chains under darkness" and "chains of darkness."  Because of what these fallen angels did; when God took away their angelic bodies, it left them with only the ability to operate as a spirit being.  Hence the term ... a disembodied spirit.

The easiest way to explain why they are chained in darkness is simply because they no longer have a body, and no longer can reflect light.  It's like they are in the darkness of outer space.  The universe is dark except when solid objects like planets, moons, or man made satellites, etc. reflect the light from the various suns.  A spirit cannot reflect light because it is intangible; it lacks substance and has no physical presence, and is incapable of being touched or seen.

Being unable to operate and express themselves in this natural physical world as they used to, they need to gain control or take possession of some physical body made of flesh; preferably a human being, but even animals will do.  Remember the man called Legion in Luke 8:33 ... "Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine ..."

Because these disembodied spirits are still under Satan's control, they are ... demonic.

Many of the demons working their evil in the world today may be some of the very same ones Jesus had to deal with when He was on the earth.  He left Satan and his evil bunch here on earth when He went back to Heaven, but only after He destroyed Satan's power (Hebrews 2:14) and made him to be of no effect unto believers ...  "destroyed" meaning ... "to render entirely useless, make void, bring to nought."

Paul states in Colossians 2:15, that Jesus ... "spoiled principalities and powers" ... which refers to Satan and his evil worldly kingdom.

Should we fear evil spirits?  I love Martin Luther's answer to this very question.

He said he was awakened by a noise one night while sleeping in his bedroom.  When he turned over to see what the noise was, he said ... "the devil himself" ... was standing in his room.  Martin Luther said ... "Oh, it's you again" ... turned back over and went to sleep.

There was no fear in that bedroom.  And there isn't any fear in my bedroom anymore.  The unseen presence of demonic powers were broken by Jesus.  It's been sixty-four years since I was tormented as a four year old little boy who had lost his mother.  I was open to attack by a defeated foe because I was too young and heartbroken to know what was going on.

But now, because Jesus promised to never leave me or forsake me ... I know that I have another unseen presence with me at all times ... and there are times I believe I can hear the the Lion of the tribe of Judah, padding along side of me.

That Lion is named ... Jesus.