Demons Seek Bodies to Express Themselves

Demons are wicked, hateful, and destructive.

Demon spirits are personalities, just like human spirits are personalities. Demons are spirits without bodies in which to dwell. We are spirits with bodies. Our spirits are from God. Demon spirits are from Satan.

 Difference Between Body and Spirit

I have a body, but I am a spirit. My spirit dwells in my body. I express myself (my spirit) with the faculties of my body. You can see my body, but you cannot see me because the real me is a spirit living inside my body.

 My body is simply the house my spirit lives in. Someday my body will die and return to the dust, but I (my spirit) shall never die. I shall return to God from where I came.

I (my spirit) am a personality. I express myself with my body. If my body were taken away, I (my spirit) could not express myself.

 Sever my tongue and my spirit could not talk. Destroy my ears and I could not hear. Blind my eyes and I could not see. Even though my eyes would be blind, my ears deaf, and my tongue removed, my spirit would still be there, but could not see, hear, or speak.

Amputate my legs and arms, destroy my sense of smell and my vocal cords, and still you have not destroyed my spirit. But my spirit could no longer express itself. My spirit would still have a body, but its faculties of expression would have been destroyed.

Now you can understand what I mean when I talk about the difference between my spirit and my body, or the difference between me and my body.

Demons Desire Expression

 Demons are evil spirits without bodies with which to express themselves in this world. They long to find expression but cannot do so until they are in possession of a body.

Now you can understand why the evil spirit which was cast out of the man, had no rest and could not be satisfied. It was a spirit of Satan sent forth to destroy and to kill. When it could not find expression in a body, it was tormented until, with the aid of seven other spirits more wicked than itself, it was able to re-enter the man and once again find expression for its evil and destruction (Matt. 12:43).

 A demon is a personality—a spirit, just like you and me. As you yearn to do good, to speak kind words, to hear music, to see the flowers, to express yourself in conversation, and to respond to impulses with some expression, demon spirits yearn to express themselves.

But since they have no bodies of their own, they must wander through the land (Matt. 12:43), seeking a body they can enter and find expression to carry out their mission of evil.

Humanity—Satan’s Tool for Destruction

Demons delight to use people to do their dirty work. Their greatest power to defile, to destroy, and to abuse people is through another human being.

God must also use human instruments anointed by the Holy Spirit, to bless, to inspire, to encourage, and to lift those who need His divine help.

 The message of good news must be reported by human lips.

God uses human instruments to minister to the human family; likewise, Satan uses human instruments to destroy the human family.

 Satan uses some man or woman to defile an innocent boy or girl, then sends that boy or girl out as his missionary into the public schools and colleges to defile the minds of others.

 The virtues of life are abused and destroyed by sinful living as young people are scarred and marked by Satan’s influence.

Who Is Satan?

Satan is the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). He is the prince of nations. He is the author of all our miseries and sorrows, of our diseases and pains, of death itself. He is the king and ruler of all demon spirits. He rules the dark hosts of hell.

 His chief desire and design is to destroy human life and, therefore, to bring sorrow to the heart of God, our heavenly Father.

We can better understand who Satan is by the names given to him in the Bible:

 • In Matthew 13:19, he is called the wicked one. In verse 39 he is called the enemy, and the devil. The word “devil” means accuser, defamer, or slanderer.

• In Revelation 12:10, he is called the accuser of believers.

• In 1 Peter 5:8, he is called the adversary and is compared to a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

• In Revelation 20:2, he is described by a group of names almost too hideous to contemplate: the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil, and Satan.

 • In John 8:44, he is called by Jesus a murderer, a liar, and the father of it (lies).

• In Matthew 4:3, he is called the tempter.

 • In Matthew 12:24, the prince of the devils.

• In Ephesians 2:2, the prince of the power of the air.

 • In John 14:30, the prince of this world.

• In 2 Corinthians 11:3, the corrupter of minds.

 Demons’ Most Useful Agents

Since a human body has the broadest means of expression, having been the only creation made in the likeness of God, demons seek as their highest prize to enter human beings.

 But when they cannot find this most prized possession, then a body of less expression will do. But one thing is certain, they cannot rest without being in possession of some body through which they can find expression.

 Perhaps now you can understand why, when Jesus went to cast out the legion of demons from the maniac, the demons begged, saying, Send us into the swine (Mark 5:12).

And being cast out of the man, the demons entered the whole herd of swine and they all ran into the water and were drowned.  Mark 5:13

Different Types of Demon Spirits

 Since demon spirits are actual personalities, they manifest their own personalities in the persons whom they possess.

There are various classes, or types, of demon spirits just like there are different types of people. The Bible record shows many different types of demon spirits at work.

The Problem of Fear

 Christians need to know what the Bible clearly teaches about demons. People fear them because they do not understand their position and have never heard about their legal defeat by Christ our Lord.

Until Daisy and I understood about demons and their work, about Satan and his defeat, we feared to speak or to teach about them. But now that we understand their work, we would not think of fearing them—knowing that, instead, they fear us.

Some say there are no such things as demons today, that the title is merely a figure of speech; but this is not true. The Bible is as clear and definite in its teachings about demons as it is about angels. Both are actual and real today. Both should be understood.