Let us get one matter very clear in our minds: The unseen realm of fallen angels and their unclean spirit dead-Nephilim children are real. They are not myths. The gods and goddesses of old are also not myths or made up. The giants of old are not mental concoctions. They died and now their disembodied spirits are the demons and devils we blindly face in the unseen realms around us. Be clear on this. Be very clear!
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
What is the "therefore" there for? Verses 1 to 5 reveals that Peter is writing to men who are shepherding local churches and to the men under them (elders). All of them are disciples (disciplined followers of Jesus). Peter's words just before are "Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (verse 5b)
Therefore, the first sentence of the passage quoted above now has a little more context. The Spirit of God is providentially writing through Peter to local pastors and those disciples who are guiding the flock. The first call is humility instead of pride or being puffed up in the local body. What follows is the core message of this post: demonic attack.
It's a two-step thing
If anyone knows about pride versus humility, it is Peter. His life has been one of stumbling about through his pride and flesh, but always with an anchor of loyalty to Jesus—hard core loyalty! And it is this man who is about to give local church leaders a crucial window into what they face on a day to day, week by week basis—prowling demons in the unseen realm and then a prescription for how to deal with them.
- Demons are prowling in the unseen realm
- Resist them and their devices
- Suffer in your flesh as you resist
- God will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you
Any sane human being will realize that there are prowling demons in the unseen realm. Only those who are truly blind will not think this. It is the second, third, and fourth steps that might surprise us.
I want you to notice the overall progression that Peter points out. This progression is not what humans want. We want pleasure and we don't want to suffer. We want God to give us what we need to not suffer before the attack. We don't want to suffer in the attack and then have God come and do His thing of restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us. Why? Like I wrote above—we want pleasure and we do not want to suffer!
Yet—the progression and recipe for living as a disciple of Christ is set by God and not by our desires. Remember: This whole thing is a loyalty test. Knowing something and suffering for it are two different matters. God's way is quite clear in scripture: Suffer then restore, confirm, strengthen, and be established. Take the attack. Work through it. Do the disciplined steps. It is our only way to the next level of being a disciple and useful tool in the Kingdom of God. There is no other choice. God has set it!
Demon devices
We call it the "unseen realm" because—unlike this physical realm—we cannot see it with our senses (eyes, ears, smell, touch, taste). But—we do have a connection point: our mind, our spirit, our thoughts, our inner voice, and the images and imaginations within. Our bodies can also be triggered from this place (i.e., urges, passions, lusts, and actions). Therefore—this is the battlefield and the point of attack of prowling demon spirits.
Deep note!
As we discuss demons, unclean spirits, and their devices, tactics, and approaches to us, we need to be very clear on a set of facts that are true and that frame our unseen enemies. It is critically important that we get the following down solid in our minds and understandings. Our worldview must contain these memories.
First—the demon unclean spirits around us in the unseen realm are more than five thousand years old. As you read about them operating in Genesis 3 and beyond, it is these same beings that are still around today. Men have certainly died, they have not. Yes—they will die (Psalm 82:6-7 "I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”), but not right now. For now—they are here and have been around for thousands of years. They are experts at deceiving blind human beings—including you and including me!
Second—just as God leads the way in righteousness, they have always led the way in wickedness. They sinned first and most and then enticed and then led men into their self-same sins—the sins of the Watchers and their Nephilim bastard children. Just about every sin you can imagine, they did first. God sees. God knows (Hebrews 12:13 "... no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him ..."). And God has already pronounced their ultimate judgment and destruction. They also know that men who follow them in their ways, sin, and unrighteous wickedness will likewise perish with them! The key for you and I to remember is they led the way in just about every sin we can commit.
Meanwhile—back at devices ...
Therefore—every unseen realm demonic device is designed to lead you into their sins and the sins they have devised both then and since Genesis 6. We already know that the battleground where these weapons (devices) are used is spiritual—our mind, heart, spirit, inner voice, thoughts, memories, images, and imaginations. They operate as a catalyst to our physical words and actions. It is time for us to consider how these weapons work. From there we can talk about defense, but first we must see the weapons and how they work based on where they work.
Not everything in your head is you
When you hear that inner voice, it is not always you. In the extreme, people will complain about "hearing voices" that tell them what to do. This is not just the experience of "crazy people". It is a common experience of all people—including you and including me. It is a modus operandi (primary mode or means) of deception. If you will respond to and follow the instructions of the voice in your head—realize that it is actually a demon employing a weapon against you. If you follow, then you are fooled into thinking it is "you" who is doing it.
What else can these demons trigger and dredge up in our mental and spiritual inner being? Well—the next point of contact beyond our inner voice is our imaginations and memories. Memories from our past—past words, actions, sinning, compromising, logic, reasoning, and all such things. What's really interesting is how our bodies respond to these things—and it isn't pretty. Here is where the spiritual meets the biological.
Thoughts and memories trigger dopamine releases in our brains. It is akin to having an opiate factory in our head. The chemicals are highly addictive. Our bodies (brains) respond to our focus and thinking. We literally can get "high" off of our (pleasure or lust) own thoughts—and—those injected into our inner world by nefarious demonic entities. In our blindness, we cannot discern the sources of this inner world—until—we encounter the scripture and the Spirit of God!
Discernment rising
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature [κτίσις] is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Consider the context above and below the relevant text bolded in the text above. Note that the Greek word κτίσις is pointing at anything divinely created: creatures (heavenly, earthly) and also institutions—think principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness in addition to humans and human governments. As a supernatural Enochian-based first century believer, Paul would have this squarely in his sights.
Nevertheless—the first stated goal is entering the rest of God (Christ) and avoiding disobedience. The weapon of choice is the word of God. The process of the Spirit by the scripture is to give us discernment between our soul (inner self) and that of some unseen influencing spirit, including both the Spirit of God and demonic spirits. And here is where common church teaching and tradition will get in our way.
Common church teaching and traditions give us multiple views of soul and spirit over the last 2,500 years. The core issue seems to be a myopic focus on trying to understand the duality of soul and spirit by itself leads, which seems to have led to a great deal of confusion. As a result, people have developed many views over the millennia. For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls show us that the Qumran Community believed something like the following:
The Dead Sea Scrolls [Qumran] community, use the terms soul and spirit to refer to different aspects or dimensions of human nature, such as life force (nephesh), breath (ruach), personality (neshamah), mind (da’at), emotion (lev), will (ratzon), conscience (yetzirah), etc.
While all of this is quite fascinating, it deviates from the text, which will actually explain itself to us on its own. Consider verse 13a: "And no creature [or power—either unseen or seen] is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him". It is my proposal that Paul is writing verse 13 to further qualify verse 12, where the soul and spirit division language is located. What does that mean? It means that the Spirit of God uses and empowers scripture to provide us with discernment between our own inner thoughts and workings versus unseen invaders of spirits we cannot otherwise detect and discern. He also uses it to help us discern His own voice ("My sheep know My voice!") separate from our own, so we know it is Him speaking and not ourselves or another.
Let's put this another way—the workings, devices, and leadings of demon spirits is real and influential on all human beings—even born again Christians. We are not auto-immune from these devices and tactics of lying unclean demon spirits. In fact, without the Spirit of God and the word of God, we are openly and blindly vulnerable. So—the answer is to this predicament is the Spirit of God using the scripture as a tool within us to give us discernment between Himself in us, our own spirit, and the voices, thoughts, memories, and other matters arising from demon spirits. Why? Look back at verse 11: "Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience."
The goal of God in us is our obedience to Christ and God overall; therefore, thwarting unseen realm spirits who lead us into their own sin coupled with our own propensity to fail and fall. This takes us back to our opening passage of scripture where we are instructed that the devil (and demons) roam and prowl and we are to "Resist him" (and them). How can we resist what we cannot see? Are we to use our imaginations and somehow blindly flail about against an enemy we cannot discern with our senses? No! We have the leading and empowering of the Spirit of God and the bedrock of scripture as our given weapon of spiritual warfare!
Suffering a little while ...
The first step is discernment and we have covered that sufficiently above. The scripture (1 Peter 5:10) now tells us that we are to suffer a little while. Why? The answer ought to be simple: This is a loyalty test. Suffering is how one proves loyalty. Easy (no suffering) proves nothing; God rescuing us from every little painful thing and keeping us from pain and suffering teaches us nothing and reveals nothing about our loyalty one way or another. No suffering isn't useful. Some suffering reveals our loyalty story. Period!
So—here is the news, Christian: Our only path forward is proving our loyalty to God, which comes through our suffering of the devices against us: Enticement, temptation, urges, thoughts, imaginations, and so on. All of these things attempt to drag us away into sin (and the sin of the Watchers) based on our fleshly passions and lusts.
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
We want the Easy Button (pleasure); We don't want suffering. We don't want to be tried—that is—we don't want to be subject to a loyalty test by God where pleasure is denied and unseen evil agents are used as a trial-by-fire mechanism. Instead, He gives us adequate weapons (Spirit and scripture) by which to fight through the suffering of the trial. God wants to know our mettle. He needs to know it. You (and I) need to be proved in the fire. So—we are called to suffer it!
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
From the view of an ancient Jew, the wilderness is where all of the bad stuff is. The Spirit is the one doing the driving; He is driving the Lord directly into the path of Satan and all of hell in the unseen realm. Every understanding and sane Jew would instantly understand this scene.
Thus—Jesus went through the same thing. He went through the fire of trial and testing—and—from the head of the dark forces himself: Satan. The master deceiver was the trial mechanism of the Lord Jesus Christ. His own loyalty (as He resided in fallen human flesh) needed to be proved by God. Only then could His ministry begin.
Do you want to be called in ministry to people by the Lord? Then suffer you must—and repeatedly until proven that your loyalty will stand. And the trials will not end there. Unlike Jesus, we are tried through a lifetime. So—get over it. Get on with it. Stand in the trials and understand how this works. Our eternal life depends on it!
Then comes the refreshing ...
10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Jesus was ministered to by angelic beings. After suffering, you and I are ministered to by the God of all grace! He himself will restore what we lose as a result of our suffering. Afterwards, He will confirm us in Himself, and He himself will strengthen what is weakened by the trial. And the God of all grace will establish us in the Kingdom of God both now and also then! This is our reward.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
His comfort is our reward. Therefore, we gladly suffer the trying of our loyalty to and in faith for the promise and reality of His comfort and His reward. Otherwise—we fail, fall, and death is our only reward.