7 Ways Demons Enter Your Life: How to Recognize & Stop Demonic Oppression

Demons have personalities.

They are wicked and evil spirits, and depending on the type of demon they are, their character traits will take over a person’s personality without them even realizing it! Demons cannot stop the call of God on your life, but they can delay it by making it difficult for you to recognize that God has given you everything needed to accomplish what He has called you to do. Demons will do their best to make you content with living your Christian life without vision, victory, or true freedom in Christ.

While we remember John 10:10 mostly for the second or latter part of the scripture where Jesus declares that He has come to give us life and life more abundantly, the first part of the scripture must be taken seriously and understood. Jesus reminds us that the thief who is Satan comes only to kill, steal, and destroy—this is his main objective. If he can’t kill you, then he will steal from you, and if that doesn’t work, then he will try to destroy you. Maybe he can’t take your life, but he will try and make your life a living hell while you’re on earth, hoping that you will turn away from God by losing all faith and trust in Him.

Demons will continually make you feel insignificant, not holy enough or good enough. They know pretty much all the Bible, so they will quote scripture to you and use it against you. If you are not aware that demons are on the inside of you and that you are oppressed by them, then you will start to believe their thoughts are your thoughts. You will listen unknowingly to what they are saying and start to believe that you are depressed, suicidal, angry, lonely, worried, and full of anxiety. You will start to identify with these traits and believe this is who you are. This is them, not you! The word of God says we have the mind of Christ once we are born again, so every thought that is contrary to God’s way of thinking comes from one of two places—our thoughts or a demon’s thoughts (masquerading as our thoughts). Satan has the art of suggestion down to a tee; he is a master at this type of attack on the believer, and he uses this strategy repeatedly because it works so well for him. We must not take the thoughts of a demon on, and the way we recognize them is that their thoughts are contrary to what God’s word says about us. This is why it says in Romans 12:2 (NKJV) that we are to renew our minds in the word of God:

And do not be conformed to this world, but be trans- formed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Second Corinthians 10:3-6 (NKJV) instructs us to pull down every vain imagination that sets itself up against God’s word. In fact, it’s one of the clearest scriptures in the Bible that lets us know who we are fighting against—spiritual beings, principalities, powers, rulers of wickedness in heavenly places!

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

Before you start panicking, thinking you are demon-possessed or that you somehow have a demon hanging off the back of you, let me say this—stop, stay calm, and carry on! I am going to break it all down for you. Trust me, there will be no gray areas left untouched. You will know by the end of this whether you need deliverance (welcome to the club!), and you will understand the significance of the deliverance ministry for the church in these last days. Then, most importantly, you will know how you can personally operate in deliverance, bringing hope and freedom to others.

First, let me explain to you how and when demons gain entry.

Trauma of any kind is usually the open door that initially allows a demon to enter. Once they are in, they will wait for opportune moments to start to distort how you think and feel about yourself, and because there is no time frame with them, this could happen straightaway or years after you have experienced that initial trauma. Whatever area you have experienced trauma in—sexual, emotional, or physical—is the point where the distortion will start. Demons will do this through your mind and your thought processes, which will then affect your will and emotions, ultimately heading for your heart.

As in the case of my associate pastor, it was her past that had opened a door in her life when she was a little girl, illustrating my earlier point that messed-up adults are generally a result of messed-up childhoods. Every experience in our lives creates good or bad memories that stay with us right through to the day we die. Not all memories are significant or bad, which is why we forget some things, although a song or a smell will remind us of our past as if it happened only yesterday. The problem is the memories that are bad—the ones we have fought hard to forget, the ones we have put to the very back of our minds, wishing or pretending they never happened. We know if we think about them, they will take us to a dark place in our minds and even cause our bodies to physically react. The moment we think of them, it’s like being transported back in time. We feel bound and restricted with fear, guilt, shame, or terror. It’s these types of feelings that allow demons to enter. The trauma attracts them, and our emotions open a spiritual door into our soul (mind, will, and emotions), and whether it’s in our past or something we are experiencing now, it’s what allows a demon to gain access.

Let me clarify. Demons gain their entry in our lives through traumatic experiences that produce, to name a few, fear, guilt, shame, violence, rejection, abandonment, or terror. These come through sin, which we have committed in our past or present, but also, sadly, often it is through sin that has been committed against us. The experiences are as individual as we are, and here are just a few examples of open doors or entry points where demons have come in. Hopefully knowing this will help you gain a clearer understanding of demonic oppression and bring clarity to how demons operate.

In my book, Devil, Come Out!, I further expose the ways that demons enter our lives, then teach you how to break any demonic force that tries to stand against Jesus’ authority.