If you have known me, even for the shortest of times, you have heard me illustrate this true story.  I was a sophomore in Bible college and sitting in a doctrines class when I heard it.  The professor was reported to be probably the best teacher and preacher in the college and had once served for many years as the Bible college president.  I remember seeing him, before I lost my sight,  on campus when I was a little boy and the Bible college was near my home in Omaha, Nebraska.  I well remember sitting next to him in the college cafeteria one day, when I was a student myself,  and visiting with him as we ate lunch at the same table.  He was a great man of God.  Such as he was, he was also grossly wrong concerning much of what he taught in doctrine class about Christian dealing with demons.  Here is his story.

He told us when he was in the ministry in his younger years, I assumed he was a pastor at the time, a friend of his, also in the ministry, told him he was going to do warfare with the Devil.  My professor said he told the friend he should not be doing such and advised strongly against it.  He reported the man said he was going to do it anyway.  A few months passed and my professor said he got what sounded like an odd phone call from his pastor friend asking him to come to his house as soon as possible.  He went and found his friend in bed in the middle of the day.  My professor said he asked the man what was wrong.  He said something was desperately wrong with him mentally and he asked my professor to help him be admitted to a local mental facility before he harmed his family.  At this point, as I sat on the front row of the class, I honestly expected the professor to say something completely different.  Instead, he said he admitted his friend to the mental hospital.  He concluded his story by saying, “If you leave the devil alone, he will leave you alone.”  I recall how personally relieved  I was upon hearing this statement.  I remember thinking how glad I was that we did not have to fight with demonic forces as Christians because I had never planned on doing so in the first place.  Years later, I learned the hard way how wrong this was.

I am not going to spend any time detailing how, and what, I  faced as a Christian over the years along these lines from a personal standpoint.  Oh, sure, I certainly may use some true stories by way of illustration, but mostly the topic is how to deal with such influence upon our lives as Christians.  You may already have chosen to believe my Bible college professor was right.  It makes little difference to me personally and, of course, I cannot make anyone believe contrary to their convictions but I do feel led to share what I have learned so far about dealing with demons, that is, how to defend ones self as a born again Christian.  Fortunately for us, the war as already been won and we, praise God, are on the winning side.  The Bible, on the other hand, gives some specific instructions about what to do when being demonically influenced and that is what I am going to talk about in this series.

Phil.

To be continued.