Just How Central is the Subject of Demon Possession, and the Casting out of Demons, to the Teachings of the Master Jesus Christ?

 
I believe it is very important for all of us to understand and take deeply to heart just how central, to the Teachings of the Master Jesus Christ, is the fact of demon existence, and the capacity of demons to manipulate embodied individuals.

Why is this so difficult for many Christians to grasp?

Indeed, it is because the demonic force itself leans on their feeling world with the sensations of doubt, fear, and disbelief. And these energies are powerful.

When we pray to the Master Jesus Christ, and we say, “Help thou our unbelief!” To this prayer the Master will respond. And in so doing, the Master first removes the demonic influence from our world, by extending a barrier of light around us. And for people who have a problem with profound disbelief in significant portions of Christ’s Teaching, for example, on the essential nature of repentance and obedience, this prayer must be said daily. In fact, if a person has a problem in this area, it must be said hourly. Yes, the power of the Master Jesus Christ must be directly invoked daily and hourly to give the soul freedom from this demonic influence. This alone will give the soul the opportunity to build up a momentum of belief and faith in the essential areas, where belief and faith in the importance of obedience as a virtue becomes stronger and stronger, and the person's capacity to practice obedience as a way of life becomes more and more successful and fruitful.

Eventually, because the soul has kept the vigil, the Master Jesus Christ will be able to say, “Thy faith has made thee whole.”

There are 25 primary references in the New Testament where the Master Jesus Christ set before us the truth that demonic forces can influence people and even possess them, and that these demonic influences must be, and can be removed in the here and now by His Power, which is the Power of the Father flowing through him.

Matthew:

4:23-24 All Galilee, Synagogues(vs.23)
8:14-17 Peter's house (vs. 14)
8:28-33 Seashore (vs. 32)
9:32-33 Outside (vs. 32)
10:7-8 Everywhere (vs. 7)
12:15,22 Great multitudes (vs. 15)
15:22-28 Coasts (vs. 22)
17:14-21 Multitude (vs. 14)

Mark:

1:23-27 Synagogues (vs. 23)
1:32-34 Door-House of Simon and Andrew (vs. 33)
1:39-41 Synagogues, all Galilee (vs. 39)
3:9-15 Small ship (vs. 9)
5:2-20 Out of ship (vs. 2)
6:10-15 House (vs. 10)
7:24-30 House (vs. 24)
9:14-27 Multitude (vs. 14)
9:33,39 House (vs. 33)

Luke:

4:33-36 Synagogue (vs. 33)
4:38-41 Simon's house (vs. 38)
6:17-19 Plain (vs. 17)
8:1-3 Every city and village (vs. 1)
8:26-39 Seashore (vs. 26)
9:37-42 Down from the hill (vs. 37)
11:14-22 Synagogue (vs. 15)
13:11-17 Synagogue (vs. 14)

Now, the Teachings of the Master Jesus Christ have always been considered the solid rock for the Children of God to stand on in the midst of the raging sea of materialist delusion, chaos, and strife. It is no less of a solid rock in this area. Actually, as you will see from the following observations, in this subject area we have our attention upon the most important aspect of the Rock of Christ, in terms of understanding the root cause of temptation and slavery, in terms of identifying their operation in our own worlds, and in terms of understanding that we face the all-important opportunity to invoke the Power of Christ unto salvation in the present moment in our efforts to be free from these influences.

What is the Rock of Christ, in real terms, if it is not the Power of Christ extended to us in the here and now, a power that sets us tangibly FREE from all manner of influence and manipulation by the darkside?

And of course, the Master Jesus Christ himself was subject to this demonic influence, wherein he was tempted 40 days, and 40 nights, and he had to prove himself invulnerable to it, before he could proceed with his mission.

Remember, the day will come soon, when high technology sensing systems will be able to peer into the astral plane, exposing these demonic entities for what they are, and the truth of these statements will become common knowledge to all the people of the planet. At that point, people will be able to understand the origin of their most potent delusions, and thus be able to take direct action in cutting off these influences by the Power of Light, which the Master Jesus Christ will gladly send into any and all states of slavery when requested.

However, it must be understood, that the entry point for all demonic influence is in the holding fast to falsehood and error. When an individual harbors a substantial error, for example, that one can have salvation without any effort on their part, the demonic force will defend that falsehood with great force, as it represents an invasion beachhead that they have established upon the shores of the soul, from which they will attempt to march inland to possess the whole country.

One illustration of the fact that this invasion force has already marched for a considerable distance inland, is in the soul's expression of potent degrees of self-hatred and self-condemnation, which indicate the fact that the soul has become trapped under a heavy and oppressive cloud layer, so thick that the soul has lost all faith, and belief, in the reality of the sunshine. The sunshine is God’s Love. And it shines always. However, under this thick cloud layer, the soul can no longer grasp the idea that the Child of God is greatly loved by God the Father. We see the demonic force right there defending its invasion route when we hear expressed through the very mouth of the victim an intransigent desire to REJECT the truth about God’s love for the soul personally, not only refusing to acknowledge self-worth in the sunlight of God’s love, but actively arguing against it.

There is no greater truth than this, God’s Love for the Soul. This is just too obvious that God must love the people of the earth to be putting all of this effort towards their salvation. For this truth to be totally hidden from the eyes of the soul, the demonic force must enter in upon the soul landscape a considerable distance, and produce a very thick cloud layer of delusion over that landscape.

The tangible sense of, and belief in, the principle of personal unworthiness before God, indicates the presence of a demonically established cloud cover which is designed to eventually suffocate the soul unto death.

When Jesus Christ spoke of setting the captives free, this is what he was talking about. But the captives have to cooperate, in as much as the entry point of demonic influence is the soul’s freewill choice to accept error and falsehood as truth.

This is why it is so important to identify error, and to cast it out. This is why it is so important to make sure our belief structures incorporate, in a balanced manner, ALL the principles which Jesus Christ taught. When we find that we choose one, and reject another, we know that this desire to reject the teaching of Jesus Christ in one area, represents such an invasion beachhead, which the demonic force will vigorously defend, as noted, and we can see this in the fact that the mind of the victim becomes impervious to all reason on a particular point of truth.

I am of course reminded of RcoField’s total rejection (in this post) of the truth that obedience to the Commandments of Christ are a prerequisite unto salvation, a prerequisite unto the inheritance of eternal life, even though the Lord Christ made this very plain, and very clear (see this post).

When we consider, against the bright backdrop of the foregoing principles, the saying of Jesus Christ, “Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.” we can better understand what he was getting at. The idea is to clean the house out completely, so there is no allegiance to error whatsoever, and in that state, there is no entry point for the demonic influence. There is only Light, which the demonic force cannot penetrate, as the Light of Christ consumes darkness on contact.

Remember the event where the Master Jesus Christ said to the Apostle Peter, "Get thee behind me Satan." Here the Master is showing us an example wherein his own disciples are subject to the demonic influence. The Apostle Peter has a substantial entry point for this kind of manipulation, wherein, within his soul psychology he still has an allegiance to error, an entry portal through which the demonic force can extend their hands, in a manner of speaking, and place them directly on the steering wheel of his feelings, his thoughts, and his mouth.

From this scripture, we see that the Lord Christ is telling us that Peter has a very long way to go before he becomes invulnerable to the manipulations of the demonic force.

Luke 21:31-34 - "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me."

And so too, the Apostle Paul, who said, “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”   What is it that actively opposes our desire to do what we know is right? It is a projected power of darkness that challenges our determination, and leads us in the opposite direction. St. Paul was bearing witness to the fact that he was vulnerable to this force as well. Of course, his prior history of helping to put Chrirtians to death, could have told us that.

When the Master said, that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, he was speaking to this vulnerability to various degrees of demonic manipulation, where the soul wants to climb a particular mountain (of virtue) but the demonic forces have a chain around the soul’s neck, and can pull the soul into the nearest ditch instead.

Every embodied soul has these vulnerabilities. That is why the world is still said to be ruled by the forces of darkness. The only way out of this predicament is for the soul to reconsecrate itself to the truth, and work with the Master Jesus Christ to anchor a forcefield of Light that can thereafter block the entry of all further temptation.

It is the goal of the Master Jesus Christ to teach the soul anew, how to live completely within the Light, and thus to become, once again, impervious to any further temptations or manipulations by the darkside. And this state of Total Light, which represents an internal state of total consecration to the truth, is the prerequisite unto salvation, for no soul can enter into the heavenly kingdom having any residual allegiances to falsehood, error, and the darkside generally.

In as much as this process of confronting error, and casting it out, is an incremental process, whereby the soul is required to make a conscious choice, one step at a time, we come to appreciate that the process of redemption can be a long and tedious process that may require many lifetimes for those souls who have become so intransigently wed to falsehood and error, as we see in those cultures in the Middle East who cling to hatred as if it were a virtue.

Those that HATE have no hope, in that condition, of ever knowing, through the mediatorship of Jesus Christ, the reality of God’s Love for them personally. The forcefield of hate presents a barrier to the entry of all truth. Truly it is God’s desire to save these souls, and wean them from these deeply held alliances to the darkside, and Jesus Christ is committed to the prospect of victory for them, but it will take time.