Do you Believe in Demons?  Matthew 8.16-17, 28-34

'How on earth do you pick these topics?’ she asked me at the soccer game.  ‘I am teaching through the book of Matthew, so this is the next subject Matthew covers in chapter 8—previous stuff can be found at www.pastorwoman.com.’  ‘Ohhhhh, I see. That makes sense.’

Demons.  So many people do not believe they really exist, except in the movies and on television.  I get that.  In part, they do not want to believe, because the whole subject is creepy, and it’s scary.  I get that too, and frankly, the demonic realm is nothing to be trifled with; however, we cannot stick our heads in the sand because there are demons, and there is demonic activity. 

Several years ago, I was going from table to table in the huge basement room of the Friends Church in Long Beach where I taught a short Bible lesson and led the homeless and disenfranchised in prayer weekly.  Word had gotten out on the street, and people actually came, seeking help from God—they had heard there was this prayer meeting going on, and it was for them!  The people I met, the things they openly shared, the stories I heard, the things God did during that time, I shall never forget.

Like I said, before I was to start that morning, I was moving from table to table, saying ‘hello’, hugging and touching people.  (Many homeless people are hungry for the touch of a genuine person; for some they cannot even recall the last time someone looked them in the eye or smiled … and a hug?  Forget-about-it.  Well, many of these folk haven’t been hugged in years.)  Suddenly, someone forcefully grabbed my left arm.  I turned to look into the face of a crazy-eyed woman who had made her way to me.  She asked my name to make sure she had the prayer lady she had heard about in Lincoln Park, and then she said, “I need you to pray for me; I gotta demon in me.”  She was insistent, “Could you pray that it would get out?!” Honestly, she looked like she had a demon in her—she had black skin and reddish hair, but her face was painted, she was sweating profusely, and was in constant motion, clutching her pillow.  “Yes, we’re going to start in just a minute,” I quietly said.  “Can you just pray now?  I gotta get outta here!”  I had been hoping to buy a little time, (even as I was asking God in my head what to do, how to handle her, as many looked on), but that was not to be.  So I called over a street guy who I knew was a Christian, and asked him to lay his hand on her shoulder, and I prayed with fury—as my mama would have said, I ‘prayed up a storm’ and invoked the blood of Jesus to remove the demon.  When I said ‘amen’, she thanked me and turned to quickly run up the stairs and out onto Atlantic Avenue.  Mmmmhmmm.  True that.

Here in Matthew 8, Jesus deals with demon possession in two instances:

“That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He cast out the evil spirits with a simple command, and he healed all the sick. This fulfilled the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah, who said,

“He took our sicknesses

    and removed our diseases.”

A little further on in verse 28, Matthew describes another scene:

“When Jesus arrived on the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gadarenes, two men who were possessed by demons met him. They lived in a cemetery and were so violent that no one could go through that area.

They began screaming at him, “Why are you interfering with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before God’s appointed time?”

There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding in the distance. So the demons begged, “If you cast us out, send us into that herd of pigs.”

“All right, go!” Jesus commanded them. So the demons came out of the men and entered the pigs, and the whole herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water.

The herdsmen fled to the nearby town, telling everyone what happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the entire town came out to meet Jesus, but they begged him to go away and leave them alone.” from Matthew 8

Demonic activity did not cease when Jesus ascended into Heaven.  But demons cannot persist at the name of Jesus; they flee.  Notice—I did not go looking for that poor soul—she came to me.  Jesus did not go looking for the demoniacs near the lake either; they sought him out.  Those men were seeking freedom, as was the painted lady.

Well, what happened to her?  Did I ever see her again?  Yes, as a matter of fact, she came the very next day to eat the meal the Korean church brought in at noon, and I was there as well.  She looked totally different—truly.  She was not painted or sweating or frantic; she stood in line along with everyone else, and took her seat around a table just as normal as could be. 

‘What did I say?  How did I pray?’ you ask.  Simply.  Firmly. Adamantly. Bowing my head, with my hand on her sweaty head, I commanded the demons to leave her, praying in the powerful name of Jesus, and in the power that is in his blood.  That is the authority he gave us—that’s all I knew to do.  Friends, Jesus came to set us free.  As Paul said, For freedom Christ has set us free¹.  Perhaps you have never read that Jesus said he was the fulfillment of what Isaiah had written 700 years earlier: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”²

Thank you, God, that you mean for us to live in freedom.

That’s all I’ got now.  I’m plain tuckered out.

Christine

1 – Galatians 5.1

2 – Luke 4.18; Isaiah 61.1-3