Light on the Hill

James Kaddis: Whether or not you want to believe it's true, whether or not you want to admit they're real, demons are real. And demons possess non-believers and they mess with believers all the time. And one of the things that they have in common in what they do with the non-believer and what they do with the believer is they will do everything that they can to destroy not only your body, but to destroy your soul. That's how demons work. Demons operate in a way that seeks to destroy you physically and spiritually.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Light on the Hill. Today in Mark chapter 9, we'll hear about how Jesus performs several noteworthy miracles. He's about to encounter a desperate father who had a boy who was demon-possessed. Through it all, we'll learn together how demons operate and how to overcome the attacks of the enemy. Here's Pastor James Kaddis.

James Kaddis: So this father, who was part of a religiously elite group, was in a place of desperation. Obviously, he's concerned. He's worried. Quite frankly, I don't even think it matters what people group he's a part of. It really is kind of superfluous in many ways. I think it's a detail that's sort of important in one sense.

But the one thing that I need everybody to understand is there's a very important issue that's coming up here. First and foremost, we are recognizing very quickly the nature of demons. Look, when demons get involved in intervening in a person's life, they will do certain things that will cause that person to behave in a way that it destroys itself.

You could look at what it says here when you read verse 18. Let me read verse 18 to you in King James English. And you could think, "Yeah, that's obvious. You would expect the demon to do this when you see movies like Poltergeist and some of these other movies that are out there." Look at the description of what the demon does.

"And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away." Look at the description. The demon appears to possess a person and in doing so, he seeks to cause the person to destroy his existence.

Whether or not you want to believe it's true, whether or not you want to admit they're real, demons are real. And demons possess non-believers and they mess with believers all the time. And one of the things that they have in common in what they do with the non-believer and what they do with the believer is they will do everything that they can to destroy not only your body, but to destroy your soul. That's how demons work.

Demons operate in a way that seeks to destroy you physically and spiritually. There is nothing about them, nothing about them that's fictitious. I can't tell you how many stories I have seen, especially as a police chaplain where we have watched people under the influence of drugs. At least that's how they're termed by the officers that I work with.

And you would arrive on scene and you would see it almost immediately. They were clearly demon-possessed. The drugs that they took, yes, invited into their lives what they were seeing. But the one thing they always had in common every single time I saw them was they were trying to destroy their bodies. They were always seeking to bring to themselves something that was destructive.

It was wild. They work this way every single time. There's one other subtle detail that you can see here with demons and how they work. They oftentimes will do whatever they can to disable your ability to be able to communicate. And they will do it in a myriad of different ways.

Sometimes they'll do it in the way that you're seeing it being done right here blatantly where the kid just can't speak. In other times, they will bring a spirit about that person that seeks for them to be isolated in ways in which they've never been isolated before. You can see it happen very vividly and very actively when people give themselves to that kind of culture.

When I was a kid and we used to be exposed to the small group of kids that were always called "the stoners," you know the one thing that they always had in common when they would go get high? They never liked being with the group. They liked isolating themselves. And the only time they were hanging out with other people in their group was when they were all under the influence together.

Why? Because that's what demons do. Demons seek to remove the tool of communication away from the person in which they inspire or possess because when you remove the tool of communication, you invite the tool of destruction. By the way, don't think that that's just something that's mitigated to a scenario where you might find somebody who's demon-possessed and it only applies in that situation.

Demons work in whole societies. Demons work very, very hard to quiet a society. Demons will do everything that they can to keep societies from not talking with one another. They will bring in whole classes of people that will do everything they can to destroy a whole other people's group's ability to express their speech freely.

Why? Because where there is an absence of dialogue, there is always an invitation for destruction. If you ever study how wars start, when you look at even the type of things that take place in civil wars, it always starts where there is an absence of discourse.

When people are not able to freely communicate and they are not given a forum where they can hear each other's voice clearly and civilly, you begin to see a reduction that leads to nothing but violence. That's all demonic. Guys, when you're going to public school campuses right now, when you're going to these college campuses and you're seeing these people who are doing demonic things going out of their way to hurt you in order to silence you, don't think for one second that is not inspired by something that's demonic. It's clearly demonic.

We're watching it happen. There are demons everywhere that are seeking to put into effect the same MO that we're observing here. Interesting. And the thing that's really scary for this father is this father says, "I went to your disciples and they couldn't cast them out." Look at Jesus's response. It's really interesting.

He answereth him and said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him unto me." Now that seems like a bit of a harsh statement to make to this guy who says, "Look, I'm desperate for you to fix this situation. I went to your disciples and they couldn't do it."

And Jesus says, "O faithless generation." How in the world is it that Jesus could say something what appears to be so off the wall? What he says is about to make perfect sense in a minute. We'll get into this because what he says is extraordinarily powerful. Look what happens next, verse 20.

"And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming." So the demon that's in this guy sees Jesus and all of a sudden he makes this body start contorting and doing all the crazy things, foaming at the mouth, the whole deal.

The demon is seeking to put that person in a place where they are incapable of having a dialogue with Jesus and are so distracted by the declining physical condition that they are incapable of doing what's necessary to find the peace that they need to find. Demons do this all the time, folks. This is a regular thing. This happens on a day-to-day basis.

And look what Jesus does. He turns around to the father and he asks this of the father, "How long is it ago since this came unto him?" I want you to pay attention to this, folks, parents especially. I hope this will wake you up. Look at the answer that the man gives.

And he said, "Of a child." From the time he was a child. This is definitely referring to one who is of tender age. This demon was possessing this child from a very young age. And look at how the father describes the condition.

"And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us." He goes on to speak about what the demons do, and it's very indicative of what we know demons will do.

He is outlining a condition by which the demons, from the time that his son was young, did everything they could to destroy his life. They would cause him to jump into a fire pit if fire was nearby or to go into water so that he would drown. That's what this is describing here.

I think every parent has an easy time saying that children are generally destructive. Fair statement? Is there any parent who has a child that is not destructive here? I just want to know because your child is a unicorn. OK, I just want to make sure you know that. All of us can easily say that children in general are destructive. That's a fair statement to make. They just are. It's just part of their growth process, right?

But demons seek to destroy children. They seek to destroy life. As destructive as a child is, let me just explain one very important characteristic that you will oftentimes find in a child, especially young boys that are very adventurous and do lots of crazy things.

There is an element that is built within them because God created it within them for self-preservation. Well, they might be destructive and the things that they do that end up inadvertently harming themselves is only because of a lack of life experience or maybe there's a skill set that's missing there because they haven't practiced enough.

And so they hurt themselves not intending to have hurt themselves. But there is this thing that God has built within them, as he has with all of us, that is instinctual in nature and that instinct is that of self-preservation. It is not natural nor will it ever be natural for a child to have suicidal tendency or suicidal ideation.

When you hear about children having suicidal ideation, it is a primary characteristic of some level of demonic intervention in one way or another. I've never met a child that desires to jump in the water to drown themselves or to jump in the fire to burn themselves. It doesn't work that way. It's not natural. It's not how God made them.

But demons will do anything that they can to destroy whoever it is they possess or mess with. Guys, I need you to develop a keen awareness of this tendency that exists within spiritual warfare. I need you to take it seriously. Maybe you've never physically seen it and hopefully you never will.

But the one thing I want you to really embrace and understand is that the devil, your adversary, my adversary, our adversary with all of his demons seeks to do one thing and one thing only and that's destroy you. He not only wants to take your physical life here on this earth, he wants to take your soul. This is his MO. This is what he wants to do.

And what's terrible about so much of this is he's far more sophisticated than we'll ever be. So going head-to-head and toe-to-toe with him in battle is impossible unless you invoke the power of God to do so, thus asking God to do it on your behalf. You can't do it in and of yourself.

But look what ends up happening as Jesus asks this question because it gets really interesting. He's like, "If you can do anything, please just have mercy on us." And Jesus said unto him, look at what Jesus says. This is where it gets really heavy. "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."

He makes an interesting statement. He says, "If you're able to believe here, if you can trust me, if you can put your faith in me, nothing's impossible. Anything can be done." Look at the response of the desperate man. I love the King James terminology here. It says, "And straightway," meaning immediately.

The father didn't even hesitate, you guys. Immediately the father of the child cried out. He didn't just say, "Okay, yeah, you got a good deal." No, he started crying out. He literally with everything in him while crying, he said, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." Well, that's pretty heavy.

I can identify with this father here for a second because when he says, "I can believe but help me with my unbelief," I know exactly what that feeling is like. Maybe not necessarily with my child. In some cases, maybe with my child or with my children. But he finds himself in a position where he recognizes he has no strength to be able to handle the situation that he finds himself in.

He realizes he's in a situation that is outside his capacity to be able to facilitate or outside his capacity to be able to combat or to deal with. He can't quench the problem. So he goes to the Lord and the Lord in essence challenges him with the fact that if he would put his faith and trust in him, then the problem can be solved.

And the man with great sincerity and with depth and with real emotion and grit basically manages to tell the Lord something very powerful. It didn't take time for me to figure it out because I can identify with the man when he says it. I can really understand.

He says this. He says, "I believe that you in essence can do this, but help me in my unbelief." Let me break down the mechanics of this because I think this is like really important for you to understand. He's looking at the capacity of Christ to be able to intervene and fix the problem and he doesn't have a single doubt in his mind that Christ can do it. No problem.

Where the doubt begins to creep in and where he's asking for help with the doubt is he has the mindset that says God can do it for everybody else, but will he do it for me? He's not doubting whether or not God can do it. He's doubting whether or not it can happen in his situation.

By the way, I do think in many cases this is the effect that demons have when they mess with people again and again and again and again. I think this is the effect of spiritual warfare. The effect of spiritual warfare oftentimes leads us who truly do believe in God and truly do trust him and truly do recognize his power.

It oftentimes leaves us in a position where we are more than capable of believing with full sincerity that God can do anything he wants to do and can do anything he wants to do in any life under any circumstance. But sometimes we feel like in one way or another he might be able to do it for everybody else, but he won't necessarily do it for us because we're in a different situation.

That is the effect, by the way, of demonic interaction. The enemy wants us to think that way. The enemy wants us to think that God can and will do it for everybody else around you and he can theoretically do it for you, but he just won't do it for you because you're different.

But then notice the statement that the father makes that I think is remarkable. He says, "I know you can do this, but I need help in being able to see you doing it for me. I need help in being able to understand and discern that I can be the recipient of this." That's what he's basically saying when he says, "Help me in my unbelief."

I love this, by the way. This is pretty heavy. So when Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit saying unto him, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him." That's a pretty heavy statement. By the way, we also learn something very interesting.

Although the man is not able to discern it in the moment, Jesus discerns it. He recognized that this boy is also deaf as a result of the interaction of these demons. The demons keep the boy from being able to hear and being able to communicate. Two very important powerful tools necessary to be able to interact with the creator of the universe to accomplish his purposes.

Notice verse 26. "And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that they said, He is dead." So think about this. As the demon leaves the body of this boy, the body of this boy is so beat up that they think that the demon killed the boy, that the boy's dead.

But look what happens here verse 27. "But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose." And when he was come into the house, his disciples—well, before we get in verse 28, let's just stop here. It's funny to see the nature spiritual warfare and what it does to the person who does not engage in it thus becoming a casualty of it.

When you refuse to engage in the warfare that you cannot see, which is the spiritual battle, you will inevitably become the first casualty of it. And as the spiritual realm begins to engage you even deeper while you refuse to engage it, you will grow in the condition of deafness and you will grow in the condition of dumbness.

In other words, you will grow less viable in your ability to communicate in that realm and you will certainly become less viable in your ability to be able to hear in that realm. And as these demons continue to mess with you and you refuse to engage in using the tools that God has given you, they will literally leave you for dead. That's what they do.

I've lost count of how many times I've talked to people who've allowed themselves to be listening to the voices of demons in their lives, even Christians. Not demon-possessed, but just simply listening to the voices of demons in their lives and have allowed themselves to become really, really weary of the day-to-day things that they face and go through every moment.

Because they've allowed themselves to listen to lies that continue to destroy them and take them apart and cause them to become more weary than they've ever been before. And in doing so, what ends up happening is they believe the lies that they've heard and by the time they find any hope for any kind of renewal, they're in a condition that is so broken that there's only one way they can find the renewal that they need, and that's Christ.

What I like about what happens here is that as Christ removes the effects of these demons upon the life of this boy, he not only removes the effect of these demons and removes the demon away from this boy, he commands a demon to never come back and mess with this boy ever again. And then he goes to the boy himself and seeks to restore him physically.

There's a big lesson to learn here. And that is this: you'll never be able to fix a person with the implementation of what we oftentimes call the social gospel because the social gospel teaches us the opposite of what Christ teaches us. See, the social gospel says feed people, make them happy, adapt to the social program, and make the spiritual issue the secondary issue.

And Jesus says, "No." No, remove the effect of the demons from their lives now. And even if they've been left for dead, at least they have a foundation to heal upon. At least they're put back in a place where they will be renewed to a condition that's healthy. So basically it says that Jesus lifted him up and he arose and we know that the work that was done was hugely miraculous. We know that it was done.

But then look at the disciples. Look at the question that they ask and this is very interesting, verse 28. "And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?" And notice what he said. "And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting."

Now, there's some debate, some people say that the word fasting isn't there in the original text. It doesn't matter, quite frankly, it's a superfluous and moot point. The issue here with Jesus saying these things come out by prayer and fasting is he is not emphasizing another work that we should do as people in order to put into effect an outcome.

Because I hear people take this passage and completely brutalize it by saying, "Well, this specific demonically possessed person can't be dealt with unless we spend the next 40 minutes, 50 minutes, five hours, 10 hours praying and fasting." That's not the point. Jesus is emphasizing the necessity for a dependency to be placed upon him to do the work that they could never do.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us today for Light on the Hill. What you just heard is one part of a study in Mark's gospel from Pastor James Kaddis. You can hear it again at lightonthehillradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Not long ago, Pastor James released his new book on the first half of Revelation. It's entitled "The Last Book." He points out that Revelation isn't a book of fear, but rather a book of hope. Pastor James will help you understand the world we live in and current events through a biblical lens, preparing your heart for what lies ahead. Get a copy by going to lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon.

We're so grateful for your support. Each donation that's sent in is an investment in what God is doing over the radio and internet. Lives are being impacted daily for the glory of God as a result. If you'd like to stand with us through providing either a one-time donation or ongoing monthly support, please visit lightonthehillradio.com. Pastor James, if someone listening right now encounters what they believe to be a person who is demon-possessed, what should he or she do?

James Kaddis: Well, very simple, let's start with what you should not do. And what you should not do is seek to engage the demon yourself. If a devil is knocking on your door, you run to the back door and you call upon God to answer the door. It's that simple. The second thing that I should say, and it's critical, is that you engage by asking God to do the work.

That in essence, what you do is you speak to the Lord concerning the person that you believe is demon-possessed. And if you're hearing other voices coming out of that person's mouth, you make it clear, "I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to the person." And you tell that person, "Now, put your faith and trust in Christ." You don't do that, you don't have a way out.

And just remember this: greater is he that lives in you than he that's in the world because you will be facing a formidable enemy. They are very real and demon-possessed people are not, they're not fun situations to deal with. So put your faith and trust in the Lord. Let the Lord do the battle.

Guest (Male): Thanks, Pastor James. Now with these final reflections about how demons operate, here again is Pastor James.

James Kaddis: What I like about what happens here is that as Christ removes the effects of these demons upon the life of this boy, he not only removes the effect of these demons and removes the demon away from this boy, he commands a demon to never come back and mess with this boy ever again. And then he goes to the boy himself and seeks to restore him physically.

There's a big lesson to learn here. And that is this: you'll never be able to fix a person with the implementation of what we oftentimes call the social gospel because the social gospel teaches us the opposite of what Christ teaches us. See, the social gospel says feed people, make them happy, adapt to the social program, and make the spiritual issue the secondary issue.

And Jesus says, "No." No, remove the effect of the demons from their lives now. And even if they've been left for dead, at least they have a foundation to heal upon. At least they're put back in a place where they will be renewed to a condition that's healthy.

So basically, it says that Jesus lifted him up and he arose and we know that the work that was done was hugely miraculous. We know that it was done. But then look at the disciples. Look at the question that they ask and this is very interesting, verse 28.

"And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?" And notice what he said. "And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting."

Now, there's some debate, some people say that the word fasting isn't there in the original text. It doesn't matter, quite frankly, it's a superfluous and moot point. The issue here with Jesus saying these things come out by prayer and fasting is he is not emphasizing another work that we should do as people in order to put into effect an outcome.

Because I hear people take this passage and completely brutalize it by saying, "Well, this specific demonically possessed person can't be dealt with unless we spend the next 40 minutes, 50 minutes, 5 hours, 10 hours praying and fasting." That's not the point. Jesus is emphasizing the necessity for a dependency to be placed upon him to do the work that they could never do.