Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Today on Light on the Hill, how demons operate and how you can overcome the attacks. More than ever, understanding how demons work, because yes they are real, and understanding what they do helps us to be better able to fear the Lord, understanding and knowing that it's only the Lord that can keep us from being affected by the power of these brutal creatures.

One of the things that I think is really critical and important is when it comes to doing things God's way, you can't miss a single detail. You've got to put your complete faith and trust in him in order to navigate through the world that you're about to take a glimpse of.

Guest (Female): I have found the peace only comes from you. I have found the joy only comes from you, because all I need is you. All I need is you.

Guest (Male): Demons are very real and the Bible tells us a lot about them. They follow a very specific pattern, and if we take time to understand what they do, we can equip ourselves for the spiritual warfare we're bound to face. Join us for Light on the Hill as we open Mark chapter nine and see how demons operate. Here's Pastor James Kaddis.

James Kaddis: All right, Mark chapter nine, and we're going to start in verse 14. I want to share a thought about something that had happened a while ago. I shared it on a Sunday morning a couple of years ago, I would say at least three years ago, if I remember correctly. Maybe two years ago, I don't remember. But this is something that had happened I want to say at least five or six years ago.

When it happened, it was a Sunday morning, and if I remember correctly, it was Palm Sunday. I had already known that things were beginning to change around me. It was where you could begin to see the world turning in a very ugly way. I think this had been the Palm Sunday before the year that we had switched presidents. Already things were kind of difficult. Maybe actually it was two years before.

It was the Palm Sunday almost three years before. It was the Palm Sunday before COVID, basically, if I remember correctly. There was just this sense about me that things were changing and I could see it. I could see things turning for the worse. I could see the days getting darker. I could sense that there was a more open opposition to the things of God and things were getting really gloomy.

Of course, we could see things set up. When you look back, hindsight is 20/20. You can see all the things that came from the moments that we have been experiencing today and kind of what led into it. You could see what contributed to the weakness that we saw in the church. You could see all of the things that happened.

If you were to reverse engineer it, all of it is pretty obvious because, as I've said on multiple occasions, hindsight can be very much 20/20. It also allows us to better be able to regroup and see what happened and maybe learn so that the next time we come into it, we won't necessarily be as blind. This particular Sunday was a really interesting one.

At the time, I had just married Nicole. Maybe I was two years into being married to Nicole. We were living in our house in Norwalk. It was my brother's house that we were renting. It was kind of interesting because when I would wake up to go to church, because of where we were living at the time, I actually woke up extra early.

I would be leaving this area probably about an hour earlier than I normally would be. This was around sometime around 3:30 in the morning, 4:00 in the morning because I'm normally here at church relatively early. I remembered just going through the normal routine of what we would go through on a Sunday morning.

Some of you might remember my old dog. He was the last dog I ever got attached to. I'm not attached to our current dog and never will be. But our old dog, Jiro, I grabbed him out of his crate and he jumped out, of course, was really excited to go on with the day with me. I put the leash on him and got ready to actually walk out of the door.

As I went to go walk out of the door, my dog resisted wanting to walk out of the door. That was not my dog. My dog at that point had been relatively disciplined. He wasn't one of these guys that liked to take off and run once you opened the door, but he was always pretty eager to want to get out. He always liked moving on because he knew that the day was going to start.

For whatever reason, Sunday seemed to be the day that he had the most pep in his step. Maybe that was because that was the time where he would see more people. I'm not quite sure. But I do know that it was very unusual leaving my house that morning because as I went to go leave the house, my dog did not want to leave.

As a matter of fact, we got to the door and the dog had just come to a complete stop. He didn't want to move. He didn't want to even allow me to open the door. I went to go open the door, he was blocking me from opening the door. He even barked kind of quietly. I kind of got a little irritated, pulled the leash so that he could get out of the way, and opened up the door.

I wasn't really paying attention. I'm always one of these guys that pays really good attention to my surroundings. In this case, I was so flustered by what the dog was doing that I wasn't necessarily even paying much attention. I end up going out to the driveway where I approach the driver's side getting ready to go into my vehicle.

Normally what I would do is I would always open the door and the dog would just jump into the driver's side. Again, the dog did not want to jump into the driver's side to get inside the vehicle. I'm thinking, "What in the world is wrong with this dog?" and I just stopped.

I realized why the dog was freaking out because you'll never believe it unless you actually see the video. I've got the video from the Ring doorbell lying around somewhere. I look up only to realize, "Holy smokes, how in the world did I not see this?" You're talking to the guy that scans the door before he walks out. You're talking to the guy that's always aware of his surroundings, that never is aloof to the things that are around him.

I was sort of trained to be that way over the years, especially working as a police chaplain. It was one of the first things we always did. But I step outside and, not paying attention, just being distracted by why in the world the dog does not want to move, I found out the reason why the dog did not want to go out the door.

As I looked up at the street, I saw one of the most disturbing images that I could possibly imagine. I could not have made this up. It was a rather large man, my guess was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of six feet tall. He appeared to be Hispanic. He was a pretty meaty-looking guy. He was probably 215, 220 pounds.

He was clearly, obviously, under the influence of drugs. He had blood all over him and he had a massive machete in his hands. He's walking down the street saying some of the craziest things. They're not discernible. They're not English language discernible. He's just making the weirdest noise.

This thought overwhelmed me and all of a sudden I'm thinking, "Do I need to get back in the house?" I'm just thinking out loud here. Do I need to get back into the house, hoping he's not going to see me, grab my weapon, and sit in the living room until the police come, or do I get in my car and figure out another solution?

I grab the dog, push him in the car, get in the car, wait until he walks past me. He's clearly so high that he's oblivious to the fact that I'm getting into my vehicle. As I'm seeing him swing this big machete around, clearly something is very wrong. It was very demonic. There was nothing about it that was normal under any stretch of the imagination.

I actually followed him with my lights off and was as quiet as I possibly could be as I called the sheriff's department. The sheriff's department showed up. It was a big deal. They held him at gunpoint. It was a big, ugly situation. I don't know if they ended up arresting him. I'm sure they did. They took him to jail.

The one thing I wanted to make sure was I wanted to make sure that that guy had been dealt with by the police before Nicole woke up a few hours later and ended up getting in her car to go to church. I didn't want her facing that guy in the dark. I made sure all of that had happened and as I was on my way back to church, there was this one overwhelming thought that I had in my mind.

It was this: from this day on, things are going to get a whole lot darker than I had ever thought possible. From this day on, the name of the game as it relates to spiritual warfare was going to be something different than I had ever experienced. At the time, I didn't know that COVID was waiting around the corner.

At the time, I didn't understand that some of the things that we were facing in our nation were waiting. I had no idea that I would be challenged on more levels than I ever thought possible, especially as it related to just the very things that I would do from day to day, whether it be church, whether it be the commitments that I had, and all the other things that were going on.

I had no clue that my life was about to change so dramatically over the next few years. But I did know this: I knew that God was in one way or another using that situation to communicate with me that the warfare around us was not only real, but the nature of it was going to change and it was going to change in a way that was so intense that it would be brutally obvious.

There would be no way to navigate through it unless you did it God's way. There would be no way to experience any kind of victory through it or no way to be able to develop any kind of peace concerning that situation or the situations to come unless my eyes and my mind and my heart were on the Lord.

I had no idea that God would bring our children into our lives. I had no idea that so many changes were going to end up taking place, every bit of which involved a level of understanding of the spiritual world that I quite did not or had not developed. I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt from that day on that there would be so many other elements that I had never considered in the past that I would need to consider moving on into the future.

Lo and behold, we hit the fast-forward button. We've just passed through Easter. We've passed through all of the events that surround that. Here we are many years later, only to find out that the insight that God had given me on that day was not only very real, but it was dead accurate. I realized very quickly that not everything is what it seems.

I also realized that whatever meets the eye of the average person in my life will never represent what is actually going on because of the spiritual elements that surround it. God had to teach me very, very quickly and in a pretty radical instance to be mindful of a realm that I was, yes, mindful of in the past, but not completely as I should be, knowing full well that if I did not think about that realm first, I would never survive what awaited me.

I find myself in a situation today where even the people closest to me will jump to conclusions about things that they see, not fully understanding the full implications of what is going on. The person that deals in the flesh, the old man that wants to deal in the flesh, wants to take the time to work with these issues in the flesh, explain everything, make the outward appearance look good.

God says, "Ignore all that mess." Who cares what they think? Who cares what it looks like? Who cares what people's perceptions are? The issue that you must deal with first are the core issues at hand. The issues that are in front of you are the issues that actually, if you don't deal with those issues first, nothing else works.

I have a friend that I spend a good amount of time talking to. He is a Strike Eagle pilot, an ex-F-15, F-18 pilot. He has some really cool stories from flying for the military, flying for the Air Force. One of the things that he talks about, because he talks about flight safety all the time, he says when you're in an emergency where your airplane stops working the way it was designed to work, or maybe something happens that endangers the flight that you're in, there are certain things that you have to focus on doing in the moment that that happens.

You must develop a discipline to ignore everything else around you. You can't think about anything else other than fly the plane and communicate. Aviate, navigate, communicate. You have to do that. When a good pilot ends up developing an emergency situation where he moves forward in those elements, the people around him will never completely understand the order by which he's making that pursuit.

What they will realize later on when it's all said and done is had he not done that, they'd all be dead. It's funny, many of the aviation accidents that he talks about and has continued to talk about over the years could have been 100 percent prevented. All had legitimate emergencies, all had situations that were presented that were difficult, and virtually all of them could have been completely prevented, including the ones where mechanical failure had taken place.

We just saw a situation very similar to that of a pilot that was here in Fullerton with his daughter. Basically, he didn't secure the latch on his door on his airplane and the door flew up. Instead of just ignoring the fact that the door had been opening and focused on actually landing the plane, navigating it and landing the plane, he got so distracted by trying to close the door that he lost sight of his airspeed, he lost sight of the direction he was in, and he basically fatally crashed the plane.

He and his daughter perished. Very sad situation when, in reality, it could have been minor damage, minimal loss, no lives taken, had the basics been looked at. I think we're in the same world today. I think we're in a world right now as believers that we are having a series of things happening to us and we're not focusing on the things God intended for us to focus on.

We're not focused on the spiritual. We're not focused on the invisible world. Which is why anytime I run into a passage like this where God specifically allows us to gain insight into a world that we cannot see, I place a premium on it. I really want to understand it and I really want to see it.

When we look at passages like the one we looked at last week with the Mount of Transfiguration, that speaks volumes about a world that we cannot see. Even more so when we get a glimpse into our enemy and how our enemies work and how demons work, then you really begin to understand how serious this world is.

The insight that we develop with respect to how they work and what they do becomes so consequential to us. What it in essence does is it allows us to be able to deeply understand how we are obligated to act in a way that is obedient and true to God's voice so that we can overcome the attacks that the enemy is waiting to bestow upon us.

I think more than ever, understanding how demons work, because yes they are real, and understanding what they do helps us to be better able to fear the Lord, understanding and knowing that it's only the Lord that can keep us from being affected by the power of these brutal creatures. One of the things that I think is really critical and important is when it comes to doing things God's way, you can't miss a single detail.

You've got to put your complete faith and trust in him in order to navigate through the world that you're about to take a glimpse of. Let's take a look at this because this is very interesting as we start in verse 14. It says, "And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great multitude about them, and the scribes questioning with them. And straightway all the people, when they beheld him, were greatly amazed, and running to him saluted him. And he asked the scribes, 'What question you with them?' And one of the multitude answered and said, 'Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.'"

All right, so let's just talk about what's going on here because Jesus is dealing with a very unique situation and I think one that's quite critical, actually. He comes across in this crowd of people that are following him and watching him, what appears to be a scribe. This scribe is very desperate. Clearly he's desperate because of a circumstance that involves his son.

The one thing that you should understand is an overwhelming majority of the scribes and Pharisees have postured themselves against Jesus because they perceive Jesus as being an obstacle to obtaining the power that they want that they've been able to obtain amongst society through their peddling of religion.

They're making these representations, praying upon the desire of people to please God. The only way you can please God is to do basically what they say and obey the rules that they put forth. Jesus is coming in blowing all of that out of the water. The scribes and Pharisees are not a big fan of Jesus because Jesus is bringing them real insight with real authority that they had never seen, telling them about what the word of God actually says and what God's expectations are of them and the hope that they can have in God, understanding that God came to save them and not destroy them.

The Pharisees are not liking it because they have no desire to share in the prestige and the power and the wealth that they have and that they've developed in basically hustling the people. It's interesting. I think we're dealing with very similar situations today. I think that an overwhelming majority of younger people are getting really sick and tired of the things that they're seeing in big churches.

They're sick and tired of watching the crazy weird freak shows with everybody on stage jumping around and dancing. They're sick and tired of seeing guys wearing their dress clothes that probably cost them a thousand dollars just for their pants alone. They're sick and tired of watching these people wearing their fancy makeup, doing the things, making a show out of everything that they're doing.

What they're beginning to realize is they have no desire to interact with people like that. All they're looking for, the only thing they want, is they want to hear the truth coming out of a person who has a sincere heart. It's funny because that's why the Catholic Church is becoming so popular, like the Episcopalian Church, for example, is becoming so popular amongst young people.

It's because what they're doing is they're conflating the liturgy that happens in these churches with what appears to be a genuine pious act. They feel like the spiritualism that they're looking for in finding people that will impose upon them structure and rules can be found through the liturgy that they're seeking in these churches, not understanding that that's all much of the same.

What they're actually looking for is they're looking for people that are taking the time to study the things that they teach, that know it well and teach it well and actually believe it to the point that they live it. That's what they're looking for. It's interesting because as Jesus comes into play here, they're very attracted to him.

They're attracted to the wisdom that he has. They're attracted to the power of his ministry. They're attracted to the fact that he's bringing real change. The Pharisees and the Sadducees cannot reproduce that. They're too fake. It's impossible because they're not leaning into the same power that Jesus is.

Jesus notices that there's one of these guys that's very troubled. He says, "You've clearly come to me with a question. What's up?" He basically goes on to tell Jesus, "My son is possessed with a demon. And what that demon is doing is that demon is keeping him from speaking. And not only is that demon keeping him from speaking, but that demon is thrashing him around. And he's acting as though he's having a seizure and everything is becoming a whole lot more desperate because I'm watching my son suffer that way and no father wants to see their son suffer that way."

Guest (Male): This is Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis, and we're currently going through the Gospel of Mark. Listen to this study and more at lightonthehillradio.com. Pastor James's teachings are also available through the Light on the Hill app and at oneplace.com. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts as well.

When you have a moment sometime today, send us an email. We'd love it. It's encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing in our listeners' lives and it's an opportunity to thank the Lord for what he's doing. There's a place to contact us at our website, lightonthehillradio.com. We've been blessed by the feedback we've received thus far regarding Pastor James's new book, The Last Book.

If you haven't ordered a copy yet, we'd encourage you to do so. This guide to Revelation covers the first half of the book, giving you what you need to know about the rapture and the end times in a clear and concise manner. Request your copy today at lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon.

If God is leading you to support this radio outreach, there's also a place to make a donation at lightonthehillradio.com. Throughout the week, you can watch our live shows and short videos, many of which relate to Bible prophecy and help you to see current events with a biblical worldview. Look for these at jameskaddis.com. As we return to Pastor James, he says he can identify on some level with the father in this story.

James Kaddis: I love my children with my whole heart and I can promise you that as a father, I will always do everything humanly possible to make sure my children are safe and don't experience or are subject to the kind of suffering that this world has to offer them. I take that very, very seriously.

I'm wired differently. I think differently than a lot of people. People have asked me in the past, "Why are you so serious about your children obeying your instructions the first time you give it to them? What's the big deal if they go out and run a little further? Why don't you just give them a little slack?"

You know what I want to tell them every single time? Although I don't really have the heart to tell them, I say, "Because you don't live in my mind. When I was a young police chaplain at 18, 19 years old, watching two-year-old girls, three-year-old girls, two-year-old boys, three-year-old boys, delaying in their obedience to their parents and running out in the middle of the street and getting flattened, literally their lives destroyed in seconds."

You don't know what it's like to watch a baby being peeled off the street and put in a body bag. I see the consequence in my mind. You could call it PTSD, you could say whatever you want. I see the picture in my mind of children perishing when they don't obey their parents.

I see the consequence of parents who aren't cautious enough to make sure that their children do not allow themselves to enter into a situation that's endangering. You would look at the things that we do, between me and my wife, and you would think we're extra paranoid, but we have certain rules.

We don't allow our kids to unbuckle their seat belts unless they get permission from us to unbuckle their seat belts. There's a reason for that. As a chaplain, I've watched kids jump out of their cars prematurely and get killed. The problem is this: the problem is as a father, in my mind, I recognize my obligation to protect my children when I see my children subject to the kind of harm that they can be subject to and I feel extremely helpless when I see something happen to them that I feel like I could have prevented, but for whatever reason, I can't.

I thank God every day that as a father, I have not been put in a situation where I've not seen something happen to my children that wasn't rectified. I lost sleep for days the day that my son had to go to the emergency room. It wasn't a fun situation and most people would say, "It's not a big deal, it's just a little cut."

But in my mind, I think completely differently. I go to the worst place. So this father, who was part of a religiously elite group, was in a place of desperation. Obviously, he's concerned.