What are evil spirits and how do they operate?

God created all things very good, He did not create evil spirits. These spiritual beings came about as a result of a rebellion in heaven initiated by a high ranking angel called Lucifer. Lucifer is known by many names, including the devil and the accuser, Satan*. Satan initially recruited many angels behind him in an attempt to elevate himself to be like God. As incredible as it may sound, war then broke out in heaven as archangel Michael and his angels fought them off and cast these rebels out to earth. Knowing their time before their final judgment is short, these fallen spiritual beings have been at work ever since to recruit as many human beings on earth as possible to join them in their final destination, hell. These are the entities we now call evil spirits or unclean spirits, or demons.

(简体中文 > 邪灵是什么和它们是如何运作？ | 繁體中文 > 邪靈是什麼和牠們是如何運作？)

 

* Other names for Lucifer in the Bible include the serpent, dragon, thief, deceiver of the world, father of lies, prince of darkness, ruler of this age, Belial, Beelzebub, Abaddon, Apollyon, Baal. Satan is the “supreme god” that many other pantheon religions worship. 

Genesis 1:31 NKJV  Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Isaiah 14:12-14 NKJV  “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’

Revelation 12:7-9 NKJV  And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Matthew 25:41 NKJV  “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:

Human beings were never destined for hell, we were destined for dominion on earth (Genesis 1:26). We were created in God’s image to steward this planet and rule with God. Unfortunately, the first man and woman God created chose to follow the devil’s wiles instead (Genesis 3). 

All this sound like a mythical fairytale but evil spirits are very real and active today as they were during the time of Adam and Eve. Their number one strategy is to keep their true nature and schemes hidden from people, just like how thieves and scammers hide their identities and plans. Thankfully, the Lord has given us His Word and His Holy Spirit to guide and protect us. Yet many Christians remain ignorant of their schemes. As God lamented in Hosea 4, His people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Here is a basic overview of how our enemies operate. For more, please visit the DISCERN SATAN’S SCHEMES and REPENT sections of this website.

Hosea 4:6 NKJV  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. 

When we understand how evil spirits work and close all doors they may use to infiltrate our lives and our families, we will arise back up in dominion and break their strongholds on this earth — as we rightfully should. This is what Jesus came to restore to us through His death and resurrection. Praise God!

Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV  And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Important clarifications

God is sovereign over all of His creation 

God has never lost control over the heavens and the earth — or evil spirits. 

The Lord is sovereign and exists outside time and space. He is able to see all things all at once. In fact, God knew all about the rebellions in heaven and on earth before any of it happened. We see from Revelation 13:8, He had already destined Jesus to die for us before the foundation of the world. This is beyond human understanding but it does show us how immeasurable His love and grace towards us is! Even though much evil runs the world today, God has a redemptive plan for us written before the foundation of the world and He has given us the means to fulfill it through Jesus Christ, His Son. We are meant to crush the serpent’s head!

Isaiah 57:15 NKJV  For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place…

Revelation 13:8 NKJV  All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Genesis 3:15 NIV   And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

No redemption for demons

In His great mercy and grace, God gives every living being free will, allowing us He has created to choose to obey Him or not. At the same time, He is a God of righteousness and justice. Therefore, He allows those who choose darkness to live with the consequences of our choices. This includes hell and eternal damnation for evil spirits, and torment for people who choose to follow the ways of devil. We are the ones who choose.

Psalm 103:19 NKJV  The Lord has established His throne in heaven, And His kingdom rules over all. 

Psalm 89:14 NKJV  Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face.

Because God is so supreme above all else, going against His perfect design also leads to supreme retribution. The price is so high that God could find no other way to redeem mankind except that He Himself die and pay the sacrifice for our sins. What an amazing God we serve.

The fallen angels, however, will not be redeemed because they were the first ones to introduce rebellion into all of creation. Their destines have already been determined. In fact, they are terrified of the torment that awaits them (Matthew 8:28-29). Demons tremble in fear before our awesome God (James 2:19). 

James 2:19 NKJV  You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!

Matthew 8:28-29 NKJV  When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”

God is righteous and just. What He ordains for one applies to all. He does not show favouritism. If we keep following the ways and lies of demons, we will end up in the same place as them. So, even though it grieves the Lord to see people who He made in His image burn in hell, and even though He will never forget any single one of us (Isaiah 49:15), He has to stay true to His ordinance.

Romans 2:11 NKJV  For there is no partiality with God.

Evil spirits serve a purpose on earth

While evil spirits appear to have some level of freedom to wreck destruction in this side of eternity, they still serve God’s ultimate purpose on earth, that is to test who amongst us will choose God first. We see an exchange between God and Satan regarding Job on this very point. God looks down from heaven on the entire human race to see if anyone truly seeks God.

Psalm 53:2 NKJV  God looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.

Proverbs 16:4 NKJV  The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.

As we obey God’s commandments and heed the counsel of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, we will overcome every one of the enemy’s schemes through the truth and faith in His never-ending love for us. God has given us a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. We will never have to live in fear as long as we obey Him. He is the our all-knowing Commander in Chief.

Romans 8:37-39 NKJV  Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Demons do not have a hold on true followers of Christ

The Bible makes it very clear that evil spirits have no legal rights against any believer who repents and turns away from being under their influence. 

Colossians 2:13-17 (NLT) says, “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.”

Not only that, we have been given all authority over the power of evil spirits in Jesus’ name. Secular movies may glorify the enemy’s powers and propagate many lies but it only takes one encounter with casting out an evil spirit to show that we indeed have authority and they do not. The challenge for most believers is our lack of knowledge, which then leads to unfounded fears.

Luke 10:19 NKJV  Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Why human beings fall prey to evil spirits 

God’s ways are higher than our ways. Hence, the spiritual realm is beyond our human comprehension. Thankfully, the Lord has given us the Holy Spirit who helps us with spiritual wisdom and revelation. He is faithful and keeps us from falling for the devil’s traps if we seek Him first. Unfortunately, many of our hearts can be so hardened by sin and seduced by this world that we don’t pay much attention to the Holy Spirit’s multiple warnings. This is how many people fall prey to evil spirits, in spite of the Lord’s goodness and provision.

Ephesians 1:17 NKJV  that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,  

1 Corinthians 2:14  But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Hebrews 3:7-8 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:  “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,

Mankind tends to place more faith in what we can see, measure, and explain as a result of our secularised upbringing to trust in engineering, science, medicine, technology, humanism, and so on. Hence, we tend to have a general skepticism towards spiritual matters. So even when we read the Bible, a veil shrouds our understanding. Evil spirits have been mentioned throughout the Bible. There are around 80 instances in the New Testament, mostly showing Jesus casting them out. Because demons hide and do not normally manifest in dramatic ways, we assume that what we read in the Bible does not apply to us anymore and that demons don’t exist in or around us. This is how thieves work in stealth and get away with their bounty. [We know we have been deceived, influenced and held captive by demons if we lack love, joy and peace and all the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and live by the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21).]

Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJV  “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

John 10:10 NKJV  The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV  Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Satan, the “god of this age”, is the mastermind behind false religions. He is also the mastermind behind how the world currently runs. One only needs to read the Bible to see how the values of this world run counter to God’s commandments. These values seem “normal” because everyone else lives this way. When we are born into this world system, we may not be aware that our families and societies are all subject to the “spirit of the world” — unless they are born again believers in Jesus Christ who truly live their lives according to God’s commandments. Many of us follow our family traditions without questioning. If our relatives tell us to pay respects to our ancestors, we obey with out questioning if this puts us on the wrong side of God or not. We have been programmed from young to go against God’s ways. This is how Satan remains the “god of this age” because many still obey him. (Also see Ancestor worship opposes God’s Word)

2 Corinthians 4:4 NKJV  whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

1 Corinthians 2:12 NKJV  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

What’s more, we have been bought up to believe that our desires can be met outside of God, that we don’t need Him to live a fulfilling life on this earth. We can gain the whole world but lose our soul to demons. Evil spirits offer us many alternatives apart from God. When we do not know God’s Word well, we will be discipled by demons into self-reliance, new age practices, materialism, philosophies, fleshly indulgences, idol worship, divination and so forth, instead. (The examples are much too numerous to list all of them.)

Matthew 16:26 NKJV  For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

How evil spirits enslave human beings

Evil spirits are the embodiment of sin and rebellion. The word, sin, is also a euphemism for demons when it is used as a noun in the Bible. We learn a few things about them by how sin is described almost as a personality.

• They dwell in people through our sin | Romans 7:20 NKJV  Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
• They wait at the door for any opportunity to jump in after we sin | Genesis 4:7 NKJV  If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
• They entice us to sin by taking advantage of our desires, their aim is to bring spiritual death | James 1:14-15 NKJV  But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
• They create traps and snares for people to fall into | Hebrews 12:1 NKJV  Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
• They war against our minds | Romans 7:23 NKJV  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
• They gain access when we give into anger or other ungodly emotions such as fear, hatred, heaviness etc. – this is how they enter through trauma | Ephesians 4:26-27 NKJV  “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.
• They enslave people | John 8:34 NKJV  Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
• They can ‘reign’ in a person to act out their demonic lusts | Romans 6:12,14 NKJV  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
• They cause people to do things they don’t want to | Romans 7:17,19 NKJV   But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.
• They are legalistic and use the laws we have broken as legal ground to come against us, ‘sting’ us | 1 Corinthians 15:56 NKJV  The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
• They will lead us to hell with them if we wilfully cooperate with them | Hebrews 10:26-27,29 NKJV  For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
• We have to become slaves of God after being set free from demons so we gain everlasting life | Romans 6:22 NKJV  But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

The commandments in the Bible not to sin are not meant to take the fun out of our lives, it is to keep the demons out!

Here are some other quick facts about evil spirits

Evil spirits were originally angels created to minister as God’s servants. They were never created in God’s image. We are! Therefore, we need to trust that God will protect us from our enemy because His image is in us.

Hebrews 1:7 NKJV  And of the angels He says:  “Who makes His angels spirits And His ministers a flame of fire.” 

Evil spirits have numerous limitations 

Evil spirits cannot be omniscient (knowing everything) or omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time) – only God is omniscient or omnipresent. The Bible shows us that if they have known what the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus would lead to, they would never have plotted to crucify Him.

1 Corinthians 2:7-8 NKJV  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Praise God that Jesus has disarmed all evil powers and stripped them of all authority and legitimacy on earth through His work on the cross and His resurrection! Demons can only hold on to any legitimacy now because so many human beings continue to put their faith in them and follow them. The more they are worshipped, the more power they get. They are the ones that enable false christs and false prophets to conjure false signs and wonders. 

Colossians 2:15 NKJV  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

Matthew 24:24  For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

In spite of their abilities, there is a limit to what demons can do. From Moses’ confrontation with the magicians in Egypt, we see that they cannot command the elements or create matter like God can. They can only manipulate and deceive.

Exodus 8:18-19 NKJV  Now the magicians so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had said.

Moreover, we see that demons are subject to God’s divine sovereignty, as shown in the story of Job. God always keeps their power in check.

In addition, they cannot fully possess someone — unless a person summons and asks the demonic spirits to enter him or her, such as by calling upon the dead through the use of ouija boards or seances, or by literally offering their bodies to them, usually accompanied as a blood sacrifice. This happens in the occult where people exchange their bodies and souls for power, success, fame and money. This act is a perversion of how we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God and invite His Holy Spirit to dwell in us.

Romans 12:1 NKJV  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Evil spirits cannot go directly against a child of God who practises righteousness i.e. a lifestyle of repentance. 1 John 5:18 is a crucial testament on this fact. Demons can only come against Christians when we hold on to un-repented sins, unforgiveness, bitterness, or curses etc. that have not been cancelled in Jesus’ name.

1 John 5:18 NKJV  We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

Thank God these spirits will not be around forever. They are destined to be confined to the lake of fire where “they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10-15). They will have no part in the new earth and new heaven that God plans to bring about – but we will!

Preference for the temple of the Holy Spirit

Evil spirits prefer to occupy human bodies, so they can act out their wickedness and desecrate God’s beloved temple. Our bodies were created to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, a privilege even the highest arch angels do not enjoy. This is one reason evil spirits hate us – other than the fact that God plans to have us judge the angels one day.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1 Corinthians 6:3 NKJV  Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life?

Demons have no right to access humans who are redeemed by God. They need to find weaknesses and areas that we have not submitted to the Lord to be covered by the blood of the lamb, in other words, our emotional wounds and unconfessed sins. This is why inner healing and deliverance are so crucial for anyone who wants to walk in the victory that Jesus has requisitioned for us to receive. Every weak point or crack in our armour needs to be mended and strengthened.

Ephesians 6:10-11 NKJV  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Like the over 1,000 species of parasites found in the human body, people can host hundreds of spirits in their spiritual bodies. How can a human body host so many spirits? We need to remember that we are meant to host the Holy Spirit, who is limitless and He is given to us without measure (John 3:34). We are more than just a physical body, we are a spiritual body. So it is not surprising that the man with the “legion” in the Gadarenes could have about 5,000 evil spirits.

John 3:34 NKJV  For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.

1 Corinthians 15:44-45 NKJV  It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Mark 5:9 Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”

They work in packs to overcome a person

We must keep in mind that evil spirits are defeated, so they are actually not that strong. This is why they have to work in various packs, so they can collectively overcome just one human being. Having one or two viruses in our body will have little or no effect on a person, but having a significant overload of viruses all at once can kill. Maintaining spiritual hygiene by obeying God’s will is what keeps us spiritually strong and alive!

1 John 5:18 NKJV  We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.  

Each pack of evil spirits has a different function and assignment. They never work alone. For example, a spirit of unforgiveness will collaborate with spirits of resentment, anger, and pride. If we “endorse” their presence by agreeing with their venomous “encouragements” to judge, criticise, curse and condemn, for example, they will bring other spirits that are more wicked, such as hatred, murder and revenge. This is how people turn evil and “grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

2 Timothy 3:13 NKJV  But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Then there are other packs of demons that focus on physical symptoms, such as headaches or a sense of heaviness, while others attack the mind with thoughts of fear, despair and confusion. Being delivered of our inner demons takes intentional effort, focusing on each area at a time.

This is why quick and immediate repentance and forgiveness keeps one blameless and protected from demonic infiltration, before more spiritual “parasites” come to infest one’s spiritual body.

Philippians 2:15 NKJV  that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

In deliverance, one can find oneself casting out various types of evil spirits. We can briefly categorise them according to:

• various pantheon of gods (the Hindu gods, Chinese gods, Celtic gods)
• high level spiritual powers (Leviathan, Jezebel, Apollyon, Queen of heaven)
• the occult (divination, necromancy, hypnotism)
• ungodly emotions (fear, rage, envy, pride, lust)
• function (violence, prostitution, addiction, lies, seduction, perversion)
• physical affliction (epilepsy, deafness, muteness, death, cancer, mind control) 
• works against the church (false prophecy, anti-Christ, religion, legalism, spirit of error, division)

We typically start with repenting and casting out the evil spirits found in the worship of false gods, high level spiritual powers, and the occult first, as those are the higher ranking demons.

Victory is always sure when we repent from our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to lead us. No demon can stand before the Lord. The Holy Spirit who is in us is far, far greater than any spiritual power of this world!

1 John 4:4 NKJV  You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Evil spirits can take on different forms

Demons can disguise themselves as angels of light or goddesses, ghosts, our dead relatives, orbs, aliens, and so on. 

2 Corinthians 11:14 NKJV  And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

Just as the Lord’s angels have appeared physically to minister to people (Genesis 18:1-22, Genesis 19:1-11, Matthew 28:2-3, Luke 24:4, Acts 12:7-10), evil spirits can appear in physical form as well. When they do, it is to deceive, to terrorise and to torment. Evil spirits can even have sex with human beings. We see an account of this in Genesis 6:2. 

Genesis 6:2 NKJV  that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.  

Demons can occupy places, objects and animals

Evil spirits can occupy certain places as their home base. These are not limited to places of the occult or pagan temples. It can include any home that has not been prayed over and cleansed of idol worship, witchcraft, idol worship, bloodshed, hatred, sexual debauchery, and various sins, and dedicated fully to the Lord.

In some cultures, spirits are invited to enter lucky charms, idols, pieces of furniture, shrines, regions, and even dead foetuses! In the New Testament, when people brought back handkerchiefs or aprons brought from Paul’s body, the power of the Holy Spirit’s presence from Paul on those objects healed the sick. When anyone brings objects hosting evil spirits home, they bring back sicknesses, torment, and misfortune.

Acts 19:11-12 NKJV  Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.

Demons can enter animals that are considered unclean in God’s Law (Leviticus 11:24-47). This is why witches have spiritually unclean animals as their spirit guides, such like all the animal guides found in the Harry Potter series. There are real demons in live animals. We see an account of this in Mark 5, where the unclean spirits asked to enter the pigs. They can also appear as snakes, scorpions, dragons etc. in visions and dreams.

Mark 5:12-13 NKJV  So all the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us to the swine, that we may enter them.” And at once Jesus gave them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea.

Demons are counterfeiters 

The enemy knows that God’s laws and principles are the most powerful for all eternity, so they copy whatever God has set up and create counterfeits. This is a key to their deceptions, because what they will conjure up will look like the real thing but they are not!

Evil spirits rely on deception

Evil spirits’ only real power lies in deceiving people into giving them legal rights into our lives. 

For example, they deceive people into 

1. focusing on the things of man, rather than the things of God | Matthew 16:23 NKJV  But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
2. doubting God’s Word | Genesis 3:1 NKJV  Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
3. believing a false gospel or a false prophet | 2 Corinthians 11:3: “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ”.
4. excusing sin rather than obey God | Ephesians 2:2 NKJV  in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
5. making covenants with demons through idol worship, oaths,  eating food offered to idols, blood sacrifices etc. | 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 NKJV  Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? …
6. being distracted with “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches” | Matthew 13:22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 
7. chasing financial security and wealth | Matthew 6:24 NKJV  “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
8. worrying about our family’s opinion more than Jesus’ | Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
9. and so on….

Evil spirits do not fight one another (Matthew 12:25-26), but they do induce human beings to fight one another!

Closing 

The Bible makes it clear that our battles are not against flesh and blood. When Jesus addressed those who plotted to kill Him, He called the devil, “a murderer from the beginning” and the Jewish religious leaders, the devil’s children. Jesus looked beyond the bondage to sin that those men were under to the real enemy, Satan himself. As believers, we must not tolerate the presence of evil spirits in any shape or form. They are the ones who provoked the people to murder Jesus and they will seek to steal, kill and destroy the lives of Jesus’ disciples as well. We have been authority over them in Jesus’ name and we should exercise it.

Ephesians 6:12 NKJV  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

John 8:44 NKJV  You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

If you believe that you need deliverance from evil spirits, please look for a ministry near you that can help you.

May this sharing be a blessing to you as you seek to love the Lord with all your heart and be freed from the influence of evil spirits.