(Ex.22:18) KJV
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch (sorceress) to live.” emphasis added
Now what I’m about to discuss here in this article has become increasingly controversial, especially in what I would call an increasingly progressive liberal church. But I want you to know what I’m about to discuss has come from personal experience and it’s backed by the word of God. So you can choose to take the more liberal position on such things if you so choose, but don’t say you weren’t warned when you find yourself being attacked by demons and you don’t why. There are many aspects of our interaction with the modern world, especially with media and technology, that opens the door to demonic oppression in our lives, and these demons care not whether you’re a Christian or just some person. All they care about is whether or not you’ve given them the legal right to harass you. Be warned, saints! Demonic oppression is real and it should not be happening for those that know Christ and those who know how to live a sanctified life unto the Lord. Although we don’t kill witches and practitioners of magic anymore like they once did in Israel in the Old Testament, we should not suffer their presence and influence in our lives and in our homes.
DEMONIC OPPRESSION THROUGH UNGODLY LEADERSHIP
For this article, I'll start by sharing some of my own experience, and then I’ll finish with sharing a few scriptures to solidify these points. This writing is not meant to take the place of a full comprehensive deliverance course or teaching. For more of that kind of in-depth teaching I recommend checking out the teachings and/or books of someone like Jennifer LeClaire, who is a modern day prophetess that I know personally who has expertise in this area.
At various times in my life, especially over the last few years since I’ve engaged in higher level warfare in my life and ministry, I’ve had to deal with demonic spirits coming to torment and harass me. More than ever before I have to be very sensitive and aware of doors I could be opening to the enemy, and I have to pay extra careful attention to live a sanctified life and not open myself up to these attacks. It feels like the more I’ve grown in the Lord and the more my seer anointing has developed the more careful I have to be. This is the trade off that in the prophetic that many teachers don’t talk about at the school of the prophets. Growing in the prophetic means that you open yourself up more to the spirit realm, and there is no going back once you’ve begun to go down that path. There’s greater responsibility and liability that comes with an increase in this particular anointing.
A few years ago I experienced my first set of night terrors and demonic attacks in my sleep consistently, the kind of attacks that I had not experienced since I was a child (where I was attacked every night for almost a year after I had watched a scary movie with my family around Halloween). These attacks refused to stop no matter how much I prayed, rebuked the enemy, or pleaded the blood. The level of demonic intrusion became so extreme that the demons began to interact with me each night as they attacked me. At first it was just panic attacks, chest pain, difficulty breathing, accompanied by horrible thoughts and nasty demonic dreams. But eventually it got to where I could feel the demons the moment they came into the room. Sometimes just their presence would wake me up as the hair stood up on my arms and the air turned to a deathly chill.
I could sense when they would walk right up next to my bed, and I began to hear them speaking to me audibly. Sometimes it was just critical badgering language, verbal attacks meant to get me down or discourage me. Eventually it progressed to crazy threats like sending me to jail or killing my wife & children. I needed help but I didn’t know what else to do. I had done everything I knew to do. When the demons were present I spent hours rebuking, pleading & applying the blood, taking authority and commanding them to leave, but they just kept coming.
Eventually, by the grace of God, I happened upon a pastor in my ministry travels, who was very experienced in inner healing & deliverance ministry. We eventually discovered the open door to be the sins of my spiritual fathers and mothers in the faith, going back to my childhood, who had abused their position of authority in my life and had been used by Satan to wound me from a young age. Those attacks opened up a door in the spirit and every time I had conflict with leaders in my life these demons would come and harass me. The solution was to repent on behalf of my fathers and mothers in the faith, forgive them for their sins against me, and walk in healthy relationships with leaders who I could trust and who could cover me in love. The moment I did this those attacks stopped and I was free.
DEMONIC OPPRESSION THROUGH TV SHOWS AND VIDEO GAMES
In a recent bout with demonic attacks in the night that returned after a long while of reprieve, I came once again to a place where I had to persevere in prayer to find out what the open door was. Again, some of the same demonic symptoms returned with a vengeance. In this case I wasn’t hearing the demons but the spirit of fear and terror was strong, and many of the same physical symptoms were occurring.
Finally, after a few weeks of battling I started to feel like I was getting a grip on the victory of this engagement. One night as I went to bed, again I felt the demonic attacks coming right as I was ready to slip into my sleep, and again I began to pray. This night as I prayed the Lord began to show me through visions the open doors that these demons had walked through for this particular engagement.
The first vision I saw was of gypsies who were practicing magic and casting spells on me. The characters in the vision looked familiar, and as I thought about it more I realized that these characters were in a TV show that I had watched recently which followed the life of gypsies in England around the turn of the century. So I repented of allowing my spirit to be exposed to that and I continued to pray.
The next vision I saw was of me sitting upstairs in the house that I’m currently living in. The scene was of my son and I playing a video game, which I thought was fun and clean for the most part. There was no bad language, no sexual content, and really no violence either, which was good. But there was one thing that this game had which I had ignored, which the Lord was showing that night in this vision. There was one character in the game that would use what the game called “guardian forces” to attack the bad guys with. Now looking back on it, this was actually the character “summoning” spirits, but at the time I didn’t pick up on it because the game didn’t call them spirits, it called them guardian forces.
In the vision the Lord highlighted one of these guardian forces as being called “Diablos” (which is the Latin word for devil). When this GF was summoned he would hurl a black ball of energy at the bad guy we were fighting, and when it hit there appeared all kinds of wicca type occult symbols around the blast radius.
Now at the time I just ignored it and moved on because it wasn’t a big part of the game. The bulk of the game wasn’t like that at all. Most of it was what they call an RPG (a role playing game) where you follow characters, learn through story, and go on various quests. Living in this world, my wife and I try not to freak out every time we see something like this because there’s so much of it everywhere we turn, and we’re not ones to hide under a rock or make our children hide under one either. That’s not to say we don’t have boundaries in place to protect us and our children from such things. As a family, we don’t watch tv shows, movies, or play games that are highly sexualized, have bad language, have horrific violence, or things that glorify the occult. My wife and I try to be very careful with that stuff because we know this truth about opening doors to the enemy, but at the same time we realize that there’s a balance with this as well unless you want to live in a cabin in the woods somewhere and never impact anyone for Christ. In this case, it slipped my mind and made it past my defenses, and I suffered for it for about a week.
The moment the Lord revealed these things to me I instantly repented and asked the Lord to forgive me. Although I wasn’t playing the game or watching the show anymore, I still repented of opening the door in the first place and instantly these attacks began to dissipate. The lesson here is: Do your best to live sanctified and to not open the door to the enemy in your life or your family’s, but if it does happen then recognize the attacks and ask the Lord to show you the open door(s). Some may not be as developed as I am in their seer gifting to discern spirits like I do, but the signs and symptoms of demonic intrusion are obvious enough for any Christian to recognize them.
If you’re being bombarded with ungodly, unholy thoughts and urges, then chances are there’s a demon that’s gained access to you that’s imparting it’s ungodly nature and thoughts to you. In the world, people are indoctrinated by Satanic media & pop culture to accept these thoughts and feelings as their own, and as a result these people become the image that Satan sent the demon to make them into. They become children of darkness who walk in deception and lies. In the world Homosexual feelings and thoughts are accepted, for instance, as proof of one’s identity, but to the discerning Christian these things are perceived as demonic lying feelings and thoughts. We have to take our authority and close any doors that have been opened for this demonic oppression and these thoughts and feelings will cease, in the name of Jesus. What the bible calls “natural affections” (Rom.1:26-27; 2 Tim.3:3) and God-given and sanctioned feelings, thoughts, and emotions will abound as you walk with him.
THE ROLE OF MUSIC IN FREEDOM & OPPRESSION
Recently, as I had these bouts with the demonic again at night, in addition to the Lord showing me the open doors through the TV show and the video game, I also saw a vision which served as a biblical reminder for how to steward the atmosphere of our lives to be conducive to heaven and the angels while expelling darkness. I saw a vision of a white feather come and land on my apple earbuds, my headphones that I use for worshiping the Lord. I knew instantly when I saw this that the Lord was reminding me of the story of when David played his harp and gave rest and refreshing to Saul who was being constantly tormented by demons.
(1 Sam.16:14-23)
14 But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him.
15 And Saul’s servants said to him, “Surely, a distressing spirit from God is troubling you.
16 Let our master now command your servants, who are before you, to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp. And it shall be that he will play it with his hand when the distressing spirit from God is upon you, and you shall be well.â€
17 So Saul said to his servants, “Provide me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me.”
18 Then one of the servants answered and said, “Look, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a handsome person; and the Lord is with him.”
19 Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.”
20 And Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, and a young goat, and sent them by his son David to Saul.
21 So David came to Saul and stood before him. And he loved him greatly, and he became his armorbearer.
22 Then Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Please let David stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight.”
23 And so it was, whenever the spirit from God was upon Saul, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him.â€
The bible is clear. The word of God gives us a clear key to spiritual warfare and living in a world that is teeming with evil spirits: Make your home and make your life into a sanctuary for God’s presence. Be a worshiper, be a praiser, be someone who is constantly making melody in your heart unto the Lord and singing spiritual songs to him (Eph.5:19). This will aid in creating an environment that is welcoming to the Spirit of God and the holy angels, and dispels evil spirits from your midst. Demons hate worship, they hate praise, they hate the presence of God. Therefore, conducting the presence of God in your life should remain a priority throughout your entire life if you want to walk in freedom and cleanliness from the filthy demonic world.
On the flip-side, consider the ramifications of this scripture in regards to what it tells us about music and different forms of media. If you can play anointed worship music to conduct the anointing and expel demons, then you can definitely play certain kinds of music that welcomes the demonic, even attracts them. The same goes for TV shows, movies, video games, and any form of media. Mediums of art, entertainment, and music (whether you like it or not) serve as portals for the spiritual realm. David’s harp and his music was a portal for heaven; it was a gateway for the anointing and the presence of God which brought rest and peace to Saul, refreshed him, and caused the distressing spirit to depart from him. If you are constantly in distress, never at peace, then consider this truth today. Consider the portals that you are opening in your life to the spiritual realm.
CONCLUSION
It is the inheritance of the sons and daughters of God to walk in peace, to walk in victory, to walk in the joy and pleasure of the Lord everyday. But we the sons and daughters of God must choose life. God has placed before us life or death (Deut.30:15), peace or torment, wisdom or foolishness. We must choose wisdom. We must choose the life and peace of Christ which has been freely made available to all. Just because you call yourself a Christian doesn’t afford you automatic kingdom peace and safety. You must live a sanctified life and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness (Eph.5:11-13) if you want to walk in freedom. It’s your choice. I encourage you to choose life and peace in Christ. I encourage you in this modern world where technology opens up portals to the spirit realm to not suffer the sorceress in your life. It’s not only the command of God in scripture to walk in sanctification, to walk in purity, to be clean in this regard, but it’s also in your best interest. Choose life!
In His Service,
Stephen Powell