Ephesians 6:12
King James Version
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Are the powers and rulers of the darkness of this world fallen angels serving under Satan? If so, what do they do to influence us or affect us? Is that something we can even quantify or discuss? How do we wrestle against them? Just looking to learn more as this interests me.
Also there's something I don't understand, if they are fallen angels how are they acting on us? Don't we pretty much do all the bad stuff in the world ourselves? Or do they act on us in such a way that it's imperceptible, influencing us somehow? I just don't get it. Maybe it's such a big thing that they do that I don't even notice it since it's always the same. Maybe things are different in heaven and you just feel better! Just thoughts, I don't know if that's true obviously.
The picture above represents this passage from Ephesians. Our Bible describes a lot about Satan and his damned devils. Volumes can be written and doubtless were written over thousands of years on this subject.
We see the perfect creation sullied by Satan's attack on Eve. He got to Adam and the entire human race through our great grandmother. That's why we need powerful men of God to stand up against the demons and the men that use him to destroy families, relationships and churches, yea even nations!
Most people do not realize when these beings are at work. They have the tactical advantage of being invisible. They are greater in power than mere men. Many of them are intelligent although there are various degrees of that as well as rank in Satan's armies. I have seen them at work first hand.
You may say, How do you know when they are invisible?
A. Those who live godly will suffer persecution. This is not merely from people, but from the devil's. They mark you as a threat to their purposes and you become their personal enemy. When someone gets saved, they will often attack for a time. When you are making good progress and leading others to Christ, you may get their attention.
None of us are as holy as Job was. However, he is an example of what Satan's forces are looking to attack. Strange circumstances and more than coincidental sufferings, setbacks and temptations will often mark the attacks. It takes some spiritual growth, some maturity to recognize these.
B. Demonic possession
A believer in Jesus Christ can not be demon possessed. The unsaved around them certainly can be, especially if they provide reasons for that to happen. That can be any number of sins, fornication, drugs, alcohol, dabbling in any forbidden practices of wicked religions. They are not usually recognizable in the person, but sometimes they are obvious.
I plan to write a book, Lord willing, on such experiences.
One is personal. It involved my highschool girlfriend. She was a lovely overachiever who was valedictorian of her highschool. She wrote me a song and played / sang it at a friend's party. That's where we started dating.
Eventually we went to WVU and she had a personality change. I will spare the details now, but sum up the events with the episode in front of Wise Library and the chemistry college where I took classes. Outside waiting for class to begin, she approached me strangely. Out of the blue, she tried to kill me with superhuman strength. I'm a lot bigger than her and an athlete that spent my life trading in martial arts. I've fought and won against attacks from older football and basketball players who were twice my size in roid rage or possibly possession in the past..
However, She was strong enough to potentially kill me as she tried and frighten this man who fought violent men without fear as a young adult. I did not fight her, but rather kept escaping her grasps, attempts to stab and throw me off the wall.
After a little bit, the Holy Spirit in me told me not to fear and reminded me, Greater is He Who is in me than he who is in the world.
Immediately, He made it clear that it was a demon that was using her body to try to kill me. He also immediately took away ALL fear.
I was in a long drawn out spiritual fight of prayer and appeal to the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. Eventually, by God's power, that damned spirit was cast out of Mary. She awakened from unconsciousness in my arms, was out of breath, sweating, exhausted and didn't know how she got there. She did not believe anything about what had happened.
