This week we want to answer the question, ”How do demons gain access to God’s people?”  After all, we are saved and the Holy Spirit lives in us.  In the first chapter of Job, a somewhat disturbing scene is revealed from the heavenlies.  Satan comes before God after “roaming throughout the earth going back and forth” (Job 1:7).  Satan seems to have been diligently searching for something.  God brings up his servant Job as a model of righteousness and Satan immediately begins to accuse him.  We should not be surprised.  Satan actually means “adversary” and his other primary title, the devil, means the “accuser” or “slanderer.”

We also see that scene played out in the book of Revelation.  Speaking of the devil, we are told, “For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down” (Rev. 12:10).  In the gospel of Luke, Jesus speaking to Peter said, “Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail” (Lk.22:31). We see the same scene in Zechariah 3:1 where Satan is standing before the Lord accusing Joshua the high priest.

These texts present us with a court room scene in which Satan brings accusations against God’s people. He is the adversary or prosecuting attorney who brings accusations in order to gain a legal right to afflict God’s people.  He searches the earth to do so. God, being a just God, must allow him some access if there is a legitimate accusation.   It seems that God does set limits on that access, but Satan procures some access all the same. 

The legitimate question arises of how Satan can find cause against us when our sins have been forgiven and covered by the blood of Christ.  One of the nuances of scripture that is often overlooked is that our sins can be forgiven in heaven while we still face consequences in this life.  

King David is an example of this principle.  After David’s adultery with Bathsheba and after setting her husband Uriah up to be killed in battle, Nathan the prophet confronted David with his sin.  The text says, “Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own…Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die” (2 Sam. 12:19-14). 

Not only did the child die, but David’s son Absalom attempted to take the throne from his Father, had sex with is father’s concubines on the palace roof, and was killed in battle.  Even though David’s sins were forgiven and his relationship with the Lord restored, there were still the consequences of his actions to be faced.  God walked with David through the consequences of his sin, but he still had to endure them.  Paul restates the principle when he says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:7-8). Consequences are God’s great teachers. When I disciplined my children, I was not angry (usually) and my love had not diminished, but I knew negative consequences were needed to turn them from dangerous or destructive behaviors later.

God is a father.  In Deuteronomy 28, he clearly states that if Israel was careful to keep his commandments, then abundant blessings would follow. In parenting terms, he was reinforcing positive behaviors. They would be blessed in the city and in the country.  Their children would be healthy.  Their crops would flourish.  The rains would come at just the right times.  They would have peace on their borders, etc. But, if they were not careful to keep his commandments, abundant curses would come on them.  In parenting terms, he was extinguishing destructive behaviors with war, drought, disease, famine, miscarriages, etc.  These consequences were designed to turn them back to God so he could forgive their sin and bless them again like the prodigal returning to his father.

In addition, the Lord also said that rebellion and idolatry committed by parents would be visited upon their children to the third and fourth generations (Ex. 20:5). In other words, the unrepented sins of parents would have consequences for their children, grandchildren, and so on.   These are generational curses.  Demons assigned to family lines can be passed on to the next generation so that a child may have a demon assigned to him/her from birth.

When Satan is accusing us before God, he is looking for unrepented sin in our own lives as well as sins in our bloodlines that have not been confessed and renounced.  When he finds those sins, he asks for a legal right to enforce a curse that has been assigned to the sin.  Demonization can be a consequence of sin that has not been dealt with.  In my experience, the sins that lead in this area for believers are unforgiveness, judging others, dabbling in witchcraft, unbelief, sexual sins, abortion, materialism, prejudice, compromise with the culture, etc.   These are sin curses.  When sin goes unrepented, because of his righteousness, God may have to lift his hand of protection and give Satan some level off access.  It may lead to demonization.  In any area of our live where we come into agreement with Satan, we give him authority in our lives. 

A second source of demonization can come through word curses…authoritative words that direct demons to afflict or oppress another individual, an organization, or a nation. The reality of this threat is borne out in Numbers 22 when Balaam (I think a prophet gone bad) is hired to declare a curse over Israel. God takes the curse seriously enough to be being willing to kill Balaam to prevent him from declaring the curse.  Satan can prompt someone to speak a curse over another or even over himself.  If he can gain legal access, he can enforce the curse. Curses can be formalized statements made by witches or warlocks, which is far more prevalent today than you might think. But, they can also be informal statements that express harmful outcomes over another person. These are especially potent if someone speaking a curse has spiritual authority over the target…parents over children, husbands over wives, spiritual leaders over those who follow, etc.  Their authority gives Satan authority to enforce the curse. 

It is true that Solomon declared, “Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest” (Prov. 26:2).  But Satan is in the business of finding something that can make the curse “deserved.” During Stalin’s reign of terror in Russia, his chief of police famously said, “Show me the man and I will show you the crime.”  In other words, everyone has something if you look hard enough.

Often these curses are spoken in anger or fear or frustration, but they are spoken all the same.  They may be something like, “I wish you were dead!  I wish you had never been born! You will never amount to anything!  No one will ever love you!  I hope you suffer like I have!  You’re  going to end up in prison just like your father! Etc.  We often speak things like that over ourselves.  These statements can function as curses that Satan is glad to enforce.

James spends a great deal of time talking about the tongue and the call on believers to speak life (blessings) over people and situations and not death (curses).  “The tongue has the power of life and death” (Prov. 18:21).  Curses are a real thing and demonization of an individual can occur as a result of spoken words.  It’s important to remember that demonization does not cost us our salvation.  It simply hinders our destiny and our ability to become more like Jesus. 

Demonization occurs when a demon(s) gets a permanent assignment on a person.  He may simply attack through people and circumstances from the outside, but most often the unclean spirit attempts to take up residence within the person and a stronghold is established. That stronghold wages war in our thought life so that our thoughts and our feelings are heavily influenced by the enemy.  That influence is designed to move our hearts further and further from God, to undermine our success, and damage our relationships.  They can even mimic diseases in our lives so that we battle sickness and debilitating conditions for years.  They come to us through unrepented sin in our own life, sins in our family line that have not been dealt with and through word curses spoken over us by others or ourselves.  I will also add that some can find entrance through trauma we have endured  – violence, abuse, molestation, rape, etc.

Next Week – Indicators of demonization and how to break free!

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Therefore come out from them and be separate,says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. (2 Co 6:14–18).


To some of us, this section of scripture sounds like the Old Testament injunctions for the Israelites to keep themselves separate from Gentiles and all their practices. They were not to marry Gentiles (non-Jews), they were not to eat with them and certainly not to worship their gods or participate in activities that honored those gods. There were, of course, foods that were considered unclean and numerous circumstances that would render a Jew unclean for a season, such as coming into contact with anything dead or diseased.

Although those laws were suspended under the New Covenant (bacon is back on the menu!), the principle of separation for the sake of holiness has not set aside. God is a holy God and his Spirit that lives in us is the Holy Spirit. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he emphasizes this principle. In a city known for its idol worship and temples to false gods, this reminder was necessary. A great number of those in the church at Corinth were Gentiles who had placed their faith in Jesus but who also had families, friends, and employers who were still unbelievers. Contact with unbelievers was not forbidden, but certain kinds of relationships were forbidden for believers.

Paul describes these relationships as relationships in which two people are “yoked” together. In an agricultural society, everyone understood the concept of “yoking.” Two animals were bound together by a yoke. Where one went, the other was forced to go. When one stood still, the other was greatly hindered from moving. Under the Law of Moses, it was forbidden to yoke different kinds of animals together, such as a horse and an ox. That was to picture the principle of separation between God’s people and others. A relationship in which yoking occurs is a relationship in which two people are bound together by covenants, oaths, and/or influence such as a marriage. It may also extend to business partners or other relationships in which people are tied together by oaths such as in Free Masonry.

In a culture that emphasizes inclusion and the tolerance of all kinds of lifestyles, the church has begun to compromise and has allowed the culture to reach into the church. Many believers think nothing of marrying an unbeliever or an individual from another culture who worships other gods. Many believers never connect their faith with their business practices or associations they belong to.

But Paul was clear. If a person does not belong to Jesus, he belongs to Satan. He is part of darkness not light, wickedness not righteousness. He has the spirit of disobedience in him, rather than the Spirit of the Living God. If we enter into a covenant with that person we, be default, are entering into a covenant with Satan and he has full access to the believer through his or her relationship with the unbeliever. Paul’s injunction is not a recommendation for who you should or should not marry, but is a command. God is a jealous God and does not willingly share his people with those outside our covenant with him.

As a covenant people living in the midst of a depraved culture, we need to love the lost but avoid being yoked with them. Of course, I have known Christians who married unbelievers who later came to Christ. That does not suspend the command. I have known drug dealers and Satanists who have come to Christ, but that doesn’t commend drug dealing and Satanism. We always think we can win those people to Christ, but what we are doing is giving Satan open access to us if we enter into a covenant through some formal act, some oath, some promise or some intimate association with unbelievers.

Of course, we will be accused of bigotry and intolerance if aren’t willing to accept and engage with every person around us, but God knows his children and those that belong at his table. He is quite willing to adopt more children and give them a seat, but those who do not have his Spirit within them, are not his. Part of our problem is that we fail to see ourselves as different from the world and set apart in Christ. Being sons and daughters of God with his Holy Spirit living in us can seem abstract if we simply know about God without experiencing him. Since we “feel” the same as others, we assume being “yoked” with them isn’t problematic.

Perhaps; we need to spend some time asking God to show us who we truly are in Christ and how we need to “come out from among them,” so we can experience the Father in his fullness. This not bigotry or hating, it is reality. If I point out that a child is not mine because he belongs to other parents, would that be an act of hate toward the child or simply a recognition of who belongs to whom? So it is in the kingdom of God.

Let me encourage you to spend some time this week reading over the passage above, asking the Spirit to give you an understanding of it, and asking him to give you a clearer sense of who you are in Christ. Jesus challenged us to be Holy, even as our Father in heaven is holy. Knowing that we are set apart from the world and seeing ourselves through than lens is the first step in being what God has called his to be.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12:10-11).

The apostle John penned this descriptor of Satan in the book of Revelation. He is often called the devil in the New Testament. The word translated from the Greek as “devil” is “diabolou.” It actually means a false accuser or slanderer. It is the nature of Satan to slander and accuse. We discover from John’s words in Revelation that he accuses the people of God day and night. He does so in the presence God.

In the Garden of Eden, Satan, in the form of a serpent, actually slandered God and drew Adam and Eve into agreement with his accusations. In the first chapter of Job, you will find him in the presence of God slandering and accusing Job. In Zechariah 3:1-5, we find a scene where Satan is before the Lord accusing Joshua, the high priest. In Luke 22:31. Jesus said to Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you s wheat, but I have prayed for you…” I think we can assume that Satan had come into the presence of God to accuse the apostles and maybe, specifically, Peter.

In the courts of God, Satan is persistently trying to gain legal access to afflict or torment believers by bringing accusations against them. Remember, his complaint in Job was that God had protected Job against the assaults of Satan, and the devil was seeking permission to afflict the man. In one sense, that is a different topic than I want to discuss today, but it reveals the nature and strategy of Satan against God’s people.

What I want to emphasize today, is that Satan uses the same strategy against each of us. If he cannot keep us out of the kingdom, then he strives to keep us ineffective in the kingdom. His goal, is to make us feel defective, inadequate, and disapproved of. His goal is to discourage us and make us feel disqualified for the blessings of God. He constantly reminds us of past failures and whispers that whatever we have done for the Lord was not good enough. He fills us with doubt about pleasing God. He pushes us to a legalism that demands we do enough to be saved, be sincere enough to be saved, have enough faith to be saved, and, of course, assures us that we have failed in every department.

In my experience, the flesh gravitates towards legalism which is the idea that we are saved by works and our own righteousness. I know that is true because every religion conceived by man, bases salvation on works and self-righteousness. Only the Holy Spirit reveals a salvation by grace through faith. Paul put is this way. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:8-10).

We are created in Christ to do good works, but we are not saved by those good works. We are not even capable of them until we are saved. Good works are our response to God’s grace rather than the cost of admission into heaven. They are evidence of salvation, but not the means of salvation. They affect our rewards in heaven, but not our presence there. That is the work of Christ and Christ alone, whose righteousness is imputed to us when we believe in God’s goodness towards us.

I find that the concept of grace can be slippery and Satan, through his accusations, often draws us into a sense of failure and condemnation by pointing out past failures and present inadequacies. But the blood of “Christ has a erased our failures in the past and makes up for our inadequacies in the present. We need to be convinced of that when Satan comes accusing.

If you struggle with the concept of grace, let me encourage you to find all the passages you can that underline the truth of God’s grace made available to us through the blood of Christ and spend days meditating on those passages. When Satan reminds us of out past and current failures, the answer is that the accusation may be true, but his premise is false. His premise is that our salvation and God’s love for us is based on our performance. That is a false premise. Both are wholly wholly based on the perfect performance of Jesus and the goodness of God. Maybe the accusations of our shortcomings are true, but it doesn’t matter. That is the good news of Jesus Christ. An understanding of grace is the body armor that protects us from the attacks of the enemy. Saving faith is simply the faith that is convinced of God’s grace through the cross.

If the accuser of the brethren is wearing you out, get hold of grace. Meditate on passages about grace. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a revelation of grace. Read books on grace. (What’s So Amazing About Grace? by Phillip Yancey is a good one.) Hang out with people who have a handle on grace. And don’t stop until you get it.. When you get it, the accuser will be disarmed.