Earthly, From the Soul, Demonic

Dear John:

You shared with me that to the best of Your knowledge there is no unconfessed sin in your life, no past issues not dealt with in the Lord, no inherited issues or involvement with the occult or sexual sins of any kind which can lead to demon possession and oppression; and yet you find yourself still being attacked by demons and even some of the problems of Your past. I thought first maybe you were just being attacked and harassed. The Bible teaches us in 2 Timothy 3:12 "And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Just because one is under attack does not mean something is wrong in their lives. It may mean everything is right in one’s life. Satan normally doesn’t attack those who are doing his bidding, at least not at first. This is what I call the peace of death. However, when one seeks to do God’s will and walks in God’s will and does His bidding, that person can expect to be attacked by Satan. However, being attacked and harassed is from the outside, not by possession from the inside. The only way a person can be possessed is by yielding to unrepented sin, involvement in the occult, or sexual sins of any kind outside the boundaries of marriage. However, a Christian who is seeking God’s will and walking in it, has complete authority over Satan, and when attacked, all that person needs to do is in the name and blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth exercise His authority as a believer over Satan according to God’s promises in His word and Satan must flee!!!

James 4:7 "Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

Luke 10:19 "Behold, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy and to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and nothing shall injure you."

Revelation 12:11 "And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death."

Mark 16:17 "And these signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons"

A second way a Christian can come under attack of Satan is if one is not actively seeking Jesus’ will and purpose for their lives and walking in it. Jesus and Paul command us in the Word of God:

Matthew 6:33 "But seek-continually first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you."

Ephesians 5:15-17 "Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."

"Hey! I am a good Christian! I go to church, pay my tithes, I don’t steal or drink!" Then what is wrong? What is not right in his life? What is wrong is that Jesus has a purpose and a plan for for that person’s life and he is not daily taking the initiative to seek Jesus to find out what that purpose and plan is and then choosing to walk in it. Since God commands us in his word to daily seek and know what His will for our lives are and to walk in it, to not do so is to be in rebellion against the Lord. Jesus put it this way in Matthew 12:30 "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters." Samuel the Prophet stated in 1 Samuel 15:22-23,

"Has Yehovah as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Yehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry."

Samuel tells us in this passage that rebellion in God’s eyes is the same as the sin of witchcraft. The practice of Witchcraft leads to demon possession. When you are not daily actively seeking God’s will for your life and walking in God’s will, you are in rebellion and God’s word says in the same camp as witches and warlocks. If a Christian claims to know Jesus, but is not actively seeking His will and purpose for His life and walking in it, that Christian is in rebellion against God. Because he or she is, they are automatically outside God’s protection and open to the attack of demons. John, I believe this second reason for harassment in your life is the reason. You are not actively seeking Jesus’ will and purpose for Your life and walking in it. James 4:7 states "Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you." The only place we will find God’s protection from Satan is in His will. That is the only place He promises it. That is the only place we will find that when we exercise our authority as a believer over Satan that it will work and he will flee and it will stick. If we are not in submission to Jesus and His will and purpose for our lives, we place ourselves in the same place Satan is which is in rebellion against God. When we do that we will find we have no authority against Satan at all and will find ourselves attacked and harassed unmercifully by him and unable to do anything to stop it.

Let me explain this a little bit better, The Lord reminded me of a passage in the book of James 3:14-16 He wants me to share with you. It states:

"But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, from-the-soul, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing."

I apologize, it starts off in the negative. No relationship to you. What the Lord wanted me to share with you is the second part:

"This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, from-the-soul, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing."

Note how this passage places the world system, the initiative of the soul and the activity of demons in the same camp. To fully understand what I am about to share here, I must go back to the sin of Adam and Eve. When we think of original sin, we think of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit from the tree God told them they could not eat from.

"And to the man Yehovah-Elohim commanded, saying, ‘From-every tree of the garden eating you-may-eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from-it you shall not eat, for in-the day that you eat from-it dying, you-shall-die.’" (Genesis 2:16-17)

What was Adam and Eve’s sin? Was it eating the forbidden fruit? No, that was the result of their sin. What was their sin? God created man a spirit, soul and body. Man’s spirit is the means by which he has a relationship with God and receives God’s will and plan for His life. Man’s soul is the means by which he has relationship with self and chooses with His will to carry out God’s will revealed to him by the Holy Spirit through His human spirit. Man’s body is the means by which he has relationship with the physical world and is able to carry out with His soul the will and plan God revealed to Him by the Holy Spirit through His human spirit. Thus God’s order for man is Spirit > Soul > and then Body. In other words, God never intended for us to just live out of the initiative of our soul: the reasoning of our thoughts or feelings; or out of the initiative of our body: our appetites and desires. God’s intended order for man was for him to receive His will by the Holy Spirit through His human spirit and then choose with His soul to carry out that will through His human body. What then happened in the Garden of Eden? Eve listened to the Serpent and then chose to listen to the reasoning of her own thoughts, her soul,  instead of the Holy Spirit through her human spirit, which then led to her eating the forbidden fruit. When she did that, she made her soul her god instead of God. Adam knew it was wrong to eat the forbidden fruit, but His affection and desire for Eve was stronger than his desire to submit himself to God and so when he ate of the forbidden fruit out of his affection and desire for Eve, he made Eve his god instead of God.

When they did that, they committed idolatry and their human spirit died. That doesn’t mean it ceased to exist, it means that it’s function died. The function of the human spirit is our means of having a relationship with God and receiving from God. Jesus said in John 4:23-24,

"But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

"‘Woe to the rebellious children,’ declares Yehovah, ‘who execute a plan, but not Mine, and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, in order to add sin to sin’" (Isaiah 30:1).

Anything we do out of the initiative of our soul that has not been commanded to us by God first is sin. That is the Bible’s definition of sin, not just what we do or do not do, but the motivating factor behind what we do or do not do: The Holy Spirit, or out of our own will, our soul?

"But He who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin." (Romans 14:23)

We are walking in Faith when what we do is by the Holy Spirit’s initiative, not our own.

"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."  (Hebrews 11:6)

We are walking in faith when what we do is out of God’s initiative first, not out of the initiative of our soul first.

"Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin." (James 4:17)

Anything we do from the initiative of our soul first is sin.

"It is the Spirit who creates-life, the flesh profits nothing." (John 6:63)

Only what we choose to do that is initiated first by His Holy Spirit through our human spirit has God’s approval and life in it and will bring life to those we interact with.

"These are the ones who cause divisions, motivated-and-controlled-through-their-soul, devoid of Spirit." (Jude 19)

When we choose to act out of the initiative of our soul first before seeking God’s will and counsel about a matter by the Holy Spirit through our human spirit, we set ourselves up against God and oppose Him. The end result is we cause confusion, division and strife among those we relate to, become a stumbling block to others and find ourselves opposing the very work of God. This is the meaning of 1 Corinthians 2:14-15,

"But a man who is motivated-and-controlled-through-his-soul does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are discerned through the spirit. But he who is motivated-and-controlled-through-his-spirit discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no man."

"For the flesh with-strong-passion-fights against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." (Galatians 5:17)

The end result of Adam and Eve’s original sin is that they are now soulishly and physically alive, but spiritually dead. Not only that, but so are Adam and Eve’s offspring, their children, us! All human beings since Adam and Eve’s sin are born into this world soulishly and physically alive and spiritually dead! That means now from the time of Adam and Eve’s original sin all men and women who are born into this world, everything they do whether good or bad comes out of the initiative of their souls, and thus is sin. That means everything we do apart from Christ whether good or bad is sin. This is why good works cannot save us, because they are initiated out of our soul, not by the Holy Spirit through our human spirit which we do not have apart from Christ. This is what we mean by all men being born with original sin, meaning with the consequences of that original sin which is soulishly and physically alive at birth but spiritually dead, and thus led only by our soulish and physical desires. This is also what we mean by all men apart from Christ being in total depravity, we mean that no matter what a man does good or bad it is still sin because it is initiated out of the soul, not by the Holy Spirit through their human spirit which they do not have. Only what is initiated by God by the Holy Spirit through our human spirit is acceptable to God.

Getting back to our passage in James 3:15-16, when we act out of the initiative of our soul without seeking God’s counsel first through the Holy Spirit, we are sinning, and when we do we are then in league with demons. Anything we do that is not initiated by God first by the Holy Spirit through our human spirit is to be outside of God’s will and to be unprotected from demonic attack. You see, to become a citizen of Heaven means to choose to allow Jesus to rule over you, it means to choose Jesus' rule over you rather than your rule over you. To not seek God’s will for your life and to just walk passively or intentionally out of the reasoning and initiative of your soul is to be in league with demons. When a person is in that state, whether saved or not, they are out from under God’s protection. There is only one place where we find God’s protection: in His will: James 4:7 states "Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you." When we acknowledge God in our ways and seek His counsel and will for our lives and then walk in obedience to it, He automatically gives us His grace of protection and power over demons.

Since God commands you in Ephesians 5:15-17,

"Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is,"

to not seek God’s will and purpose for your life and then choose not to walk in obedience to it is to be in rebellion and thus to be outside of God’s protection and in league with demons. When you don’t take the initiative yourself to seek the Lord and His will for you, you lose His protection and you come under demonic attack and harassment. I know I did years ago when God began to deal with me about my needing to get serious with Him and His purpose and plan for me. As I sought His will for my life and His will in my daily use of free time, and as I chose to walk in what He wanted me to do, I had the fruit of the Holy Spirit of love, joy and peace and complete protection from any demonic harassment. However, if I decided to do what I wanted to do instead, instantly I would come under attack and harassment of demons. The best way I know how to describe it is that it was like a hornet of wasps all around me buzzing and my whole body would be under attack.  This was God’s way of helping me to walk in His will and obey Him, LOL. Note the similarity of this to the children of Israel in the book of Joshua which is a physical type of the walk of the Christian in the Holy Spirit. As soon as I got back focused on His will and plan for my life the attacks stopped. I have not experienced those kind of attacks for over 30 years, but that is because I learned my lesson and I have been walking in Jesus’ will for me ever since.

John, as you draw closer to Jesus and His will for you, you will find that you become a lot more sensitive to the spiritual realm and more discerning about the things that are going on around you. You start seeing God’s activity in everything and in everything He is not. Isn’t this what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14-15?

"But a man who is motivated-and-controlled-through-his-soul does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are discerned through the spirit. But he who is motivated-and-controlled-through-his-spirit discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no man."

When a Christian passively or intentionally acts out of the reasoning of His own soul, he too will not understand the things of the Spirit of God and will in fact oppose God. We all ARE in a spiritual battle and Jesus said in Matthew 12:30 "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters." How do we know when we are with Jesus and when we are not? When we are seeking His will and purpose for our lives and walking in it, we are with Jesus; and when we are not seeking His will and purpose for our lives and walking in it, we are against Jesus, we become His enemy.  What does the Bible say about Moses and Jesus?

Hebrews 3:5-8 "Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end. Therefore, just as the Holy-Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness.’"

Moses was faithful in His house because he only acted out of Yehovah's initiative, not his own.  Jesus was faithful in His house because He only acted out of the Father's initiative in his earthly life, not his own.  We are faithful in our house, our body, when what we do and say is only out of Jesus' initiative, not our own.  While Jesus had full access to His divine nature, He said about Himself while a man on earth with the limitations of a man:

John 5:19 "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner."

What is Jesus’ purpose and plan for our lives? The same as it was for Him. He said about Himself in Luke 19:10 "For the Son-of-man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." He then said about us in John 20:21 "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you." Jesus came to seek and to save the Lost by drawing men to Himself. Our calling is the same. We are called to allow Jesus to seek and to save the lost by drawing them to Himself through us.

Paul makes it very plain that our citizenship is in Heaven not on this earth. He says in a negative strain in Philippians 3:18-20,

"For many walk of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."

The moment we receive Christ we are saved and our citizenship is transferred from this earth to heaven. Why then does the Lord keep us here? So that we will bring as many men and women as we can with us. How do we do this? By allowing Jesus to seek and to save the lost through us. How do we do that? By seeking our commander and chief Jesus Christ as to how we can best be a light for Him in personality, vocation and life-style. If He has called you to be a teacher, then your prayer would be "Lord, How can I best serve you as a teacher and where? Where can I best be a light for you." I have been in full time ministry for over 10 years. Previous to that, wherever the Lord had me employed, the very first day of employment I would make a list of all the employees and my bosses and I would start praying for their salvation and for God to use me in whatever way He chose to help bring them to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

This is what Jesus means when he says in Matthew 12:30 "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters." He means that His heart is to seek and to save the lost and that if we are with Him, that is our heart to:  to allow Jesus to use us to bring His message of love and forgiveness to others.  Only when we are focused on His will as to how we can best be a light for Him in this way are we joined with Him in battle. He says to do otherwise is to be against Him, against His agenda and focus.  It is to be earthly, of the soul, and in league with demons. Basically Jesus says there is no middle ground. You are either with Him in His will and purpose or you are against Him and His enemy. For that reason Paul admonishes us in Ephesians 5:15-17,

"Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."

He says "Don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." We are all soldiers in Christ and we are called to battle. To not seek Jesus will for our lives and our part in this battle and how He wants us to use our talents and abilities to this end is to automatically be in our soul and out of the Holy Spirit and in league with the world and demons and to be against Him. Why? Because then we are no different from the world and demons who are living for themselves and out of the initiative of their souls.  For You to do that, James tells us plainly, is for you to be automatically in league with demons.  When you are in that place, you are out from under God's protection.  The end result is that you are then open to demonic attack and no amount of exercising your authority as a believer will make it go away.

What then is the solution?  To turn from living for yourself and giving your life to Jesus to live for Him.  You are living for Jesus when you have His heart.  What is Jesus' Heart?  Jesus Heart is that He came to seek and to save the lost by drawing men to Himself.  When you commit yourself to Jesus to allow Him to seek and to save the lost through you, you then have Jesus' agenda and are living for Him.

For Further reading see these two articles about how to daily submit Yourself to the Lord:

Sincerely in Jesus,

Dale P. Kruse
Pastor-Evangelist