I've posted this testimony before but I ran across it today when looking for 
a different file I work on once and awhile and thought it might be useful to 
someone.

Phil.



Fax Me A Demon

Dealing with Lying Spirits In The Lives Of Christians


By Phil Scovell






     I was praying with a young man whose business had suddenly
dropped off.  He had found replacement work but regardless, his
shop wasn't making enough money, all of the sudden, to even pay
his employees, not to mention himself.  The reduction in business
wasn't the only thing creating stress in his life so we weren't
just praying that God would bless his business.  His wife was
expecting her third child, it was Christmas, Denver had three snow
storms totaling more than three feet of snow plus drifts to 5 and
6 feet around the city, and other personal things in his life were
all trying to pound his Christianity into the ground.  These are
golden opportunities for the Enemy to plant bad seed in a
Christian's life or to attempt to nourish  implanted lies already
seeded.  So, he was in my office and we were talking and praying
about what he was facing.

     Although the claim has been made, I am not a demon hunter.
In my type of prayer ministry, demons show up, sort of speak,
during prayer sessions all the time but it isn't because I am
looking for them.  It comes with the territory, sort of speak.

     "You mean, in the lives of Christians?  Demons?"

     To whom did you think I was referring?  It is a given that
the lost can be demonically influenced but I pray with Christians.
Being the old Baptist boy that I am, or was, I always get
confused about that these days, my Baptist friends, I have
precious few of them now, say I am too Charismatic, and my
Charismatic friends say I'm too Baptist.  So, as I said, some days
I'm a little confused about who I am but as long as Jesus knows,
that's all that counts.  Anyhow, the first thing I do, when
someone sits down across my desk from me or is on the other end of
the telephone, is to find out if they are born again or not.  If
they aren't, I show them the Scriptures and lead them to Christ.

     "Well, then, don't the demons that were bothering them go
away after they get saved?"

     Are we reading the same bible?  The answer is, their sin of
condemnation and eternal punishment goes away but you surely don't
think the Enemy gives up trying to kill, steal, and to destroy
their lives, do you?  Well, if you do think that, God bless you
because you are walking on thin ice as a Christian.  Just because
we become born again doesn't mean we no longer sin.  Nor does
sinning, as a Christian, mean we have to get born again all over
again.  First John 1:9 makes that clear.  Jesus died once for sin,
(See Hebrews 10:12), and He isn't doing it all over again for any
reason.  He doesn't have to because what's done is done.

     Let me tell you a story.  Years ago, when I was still
attending a Baptist church, I was also doing high speed cassette
duplication for churches and traveling preachers.  One man I did
tapes for, both sermon and the music tapes he and his wife
recorded, told the following story.  It seems apropos to tell it
right now because this guy was what we called a hard core Baptist
boy.  He did not believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as
tongues, in fact, he preached against it, and he did not believe
there was anything remotely like the baptism of the Holy Spirit
even if Jesus did speak of it to His disciples in Acts chapter
one.  Here is the story this Baptist preacher told.

     He was preaching at a youth camp one summer when a mother,
who was working at the camp as a volunteer, happened to mention to
one of the guest speakers, that her son was afraid of the dark.
In fact, she said, her son, he was 10 years of age, had to sleep
with a light on in his room nightly.  By the way, this is not
uncommon.  The pastor she mentioned this to, mentioned her story
to some other pastors who were there at the camp with their own
church kids.  They decided they would pray over this boy
concerning this matter.  Yes, this, in and of itself, is highly
unusual for a bunch of Baptist preachers.  God bless them, they
did it anyway.

     One afternoon, several of the pastors got together and the
boy was called in.  He had been playing baseball with several
other church kids but he went with his mother to be prayed over.
the pastors laid hands on him and prayed authoritative prayers and
commanded the unclean spirit to leave him.  Nothing seemed to
happen.  the boy placed his ball cap back on his head, picked up
his glove, and went back outside to continue playing baseball.

     As I recall, the woman's pastor was one of the men who was
there in the prayer session.  After getting home from church camp,
she went and told her pastor one day that something strange
happened.  She reported that her son no longer requested his room
light be left on when he went to bed and he was no longer afraid
of the dark.

     "So, what happened?" you may ask.

     You tell me.

     I was literally taught, growing up, that you should leave
demons alone.  What do we do, then, if demons won't leave us
alone?  Well, the only person I know that is an authority on the
subject, is Jesus.  So what did He do?  You can read the Gospels
for yourself, if you haven't before, but if you take time to read
them again, take note of all the contact with demons that Jesus
had and pay attention to what He did.  Let me make reference to
just one of our Lord's encounters before I finish my story of the
man I prayed with recently.

     If you read Matthew chapter 8, and Mark chapter 5, and Luke
chapter 8, you will find the story of what some called the
Galilean Demoniac.  According to the Matthew account, there were
two such men.  So why do the other Gospel accounts only speak of
one man?  He likely was the one Jesus told not to come with Him
but to return to his city and witness of the great things God had
done for him.  I'm just guessing because the bible doesn't say so
don't worry about it.

     Jesus stepped off the boat with his disciples and these to
crazy people came running up to him and fell down and began
worshipping him.  They were both naked as a jay bird, too.  What a
strange way to worship.  Simply stated, these two men were
demonized.  That is the meaning of the word "possessed" used by
the King James translators.  Demon possession and oppression are
not the same thing but we can talk about that another time.

     Let me tell you a little about these two men.  As I said,
they both were stark naked, that means they wore no clothes, which
is exactly what the Bible says.  Further more, these demonized men
were so violent, no one traveled in that area because they would
be attacked.  These two men lived among the tombs, slept with
dead bodies in other words, screamed and yelled, and terrorized
everybody who lived in the area.  Further more, the Bible says
they were self mutilators.  That means they cut themselves until
they bled.  Additionally, according to the Biblical record, these
two men had super human strength because the citizens thereabouts
captured them, probably with dozens of men working together, and
shackled and chained them.  The two naked demonized men snapped
the chains and fetters as if they were made of thread.  So, in
short, there wasn't much that could be done for these men except
leave them alone as they freely roamed the hillsides and graves.
Although the Bible does not say, I would not be surprised at all
if these men were necrophilic since they lived among the tombs of
the dead.  This term can also include sex with dead bodies, too.
Like I said, it wouldn't surprise me.  They were nothing short of
being a couple of spooky and scary characters to say the least.

     As I said, when Jesus stepped off the boat, they fell on
their faces before Him and worshipped.  Demons spoke out of their
mouths, which is clearly evident upon reading the Biblical
accounts, and Jesus asked the name of the demon, or demons, when
they began worshipping Him.  Jesus was told that their name was
Legion because they had many demons.  No, we are not told how they
got this way but very likely they had been involved with pagan
rituals.  Regardless, they needed help.  These naked men had open,
bleeding, festering open sores all over their bodies.  They were
feared by all.  Well, except Jesus of course.

     What do you suppose Jesus did?  Perhaps Jesus told them to
join a local mega church and ask for prayer?  Maybe Jesus
recommended a couple of million dollar best selling Christian
books on the topic for them to read.  It is possible, I suppose,
that Jesus suggested they read the Bible every day.  Surely that
should help.  Right?  Maybe he offered a weekly group session they
could attend to talk out their problems of demonetization.
Certainly, at the very least, Jesus would have sent them to a
psych hospital for treatment.  Of course it is absurd.  Jesus did
no such thing.  Forgive my sarcasm but I know some Christians
today who make such suggestions to people with whom they wish not
to deal with spiritually.  Yes, it is sad.  It is also wrong.

     In this case, since Legion probably refers to thousands and
thousands, He first told the demons to shut up.  Jesus didn't need
demons to worship Him because He has us for that.  He probably
asked for the name, in my opinion, because He wanted to know the
name of whoever was in charge of the group of demons tormenting
these men.  Regardless, the story has both a humorous ending and a
pathetic one.  The Demons begged Jesus not to send them to the
"deep" which is a reference to "the pit" or perhaps hell itself.
Instead, the demons, and this shows how smart they are, requested
to be sent into a heard of a couple of thousand hogs which Jesus
granted.  The pigs ran down into the water and drown.  the hog
farmers, royally ticked off at their loss, ran into town, told the
city council that Jesus just killed their stock, and the city
officials came out and begged Jesus to leave the area.  According
to the Bible story, the naked men were now clothes and in their
"right minds" and with Jesus when the city officials came to talk
to Jesus about leaving their area.  Go figure.  You would think
they would have invited him into town for a revival meeting or
something but not this outfit.  It sounds like what most typical
politicians would do even today.

     Now, with this bit of Biblical background, let me finish
telling you about the man I prayed with in my office.

     During the simple prayer session, and there is nothing
complicated or complex about the prayer sessions, we just talk and
pray is all, the man reported that he had been seeing a dark shape
in the basic shape of a man roaming around his shop inside the
building.  He thought it might be an angel because he reported the
figure looked as if it had wings but he wasn't positive about
what this thing was.  It was dark and more like a shadow, he
reported.  By the way, demons have no glory of their own.

     As we prayed, we eventually ended up in his shop.  He told me
that with his naked eye, he often thought he saw this figure
moving around the shop and standing by different people.  Mostly,
this figure ended up walking to the shop  fax machine and just
staring at it.  It was fairly new, and hadn't been working for
weeks and nobody could figure out why.  The dumb fax machine
hadn't even been answering the fax line either.  Many of their
orders, it is a drapery manufacturing shop, come from decorators
who fax in their orders to them.

     As we prayed and talked, this figure became prominent in his
thoughts.  I knew what it was, mostly from previous experiences in
prayer sessions, so I asked Jesus if this demon had any right to
be where he was in the shop.  The man reported that the demon was
now shaking and his lips were trembling as if he were struggling
not to speak.  Jesus spoke a single word, or made the demon speak
the word, "No."  I prayed a simple prayer the Lord has given me
and told the demon to leave.  He didn't.  This is also fairly
common.

     First, demons don't like to talk because an intercessor that
knows what is happening will recognize why the demon thinks he has
a right to be there the second he speaks.   Secondly, they may
also test to see if you become frustrated with their defiance and
lack of obedience and begin to doubt your co-equal authority over
them.  (See Romans 8 and Colossians 2:10).  This is also the main
reason why I never find the need to carry on a conversation, as
many do, with demons.  Furthermore, they don't want to leave in
the first place because they love screwing up people's lives.
When something of this nature occurs during the prayer session, it
becomes obvious the demon thinks he has the right to remain but as
I said, they don't like confessing the reason.  Another reason why
they often prefer remaining silent is because they already know
Jesus has all power and authority over them.

     I changed my questioning at this point in the prayer session
because it was clear the demon not only would not leave until the
lie was exposed but more importantly, Jesus wanted us to know the
reason so the demon would no longer have authority, or the right,
to return to the scene, as it were.

     At this point, many are wondering how demons communicate.  In
my opinion, it depends upon the level, or depth, of oppression or
influence.  Normally, demons just speak into our thoughts.  In
fact, they speak exactly as the Holy Spirit does when speaking
into our thoughts.  Secondly, and in this case, which is quite
common, they refuse to speak out of fear the real reason for their
presence will be discovered.  A third level of communication is
through the person's own voice.  I believe what is occurring is
that the demon is trying to demonstrate the level of deceit over
the person.  The person I am praying with often will just speak
out loud what they hear spoken in their thoughts.  Yes, in most
cases, but not all, the person could simply not speak but in other
cases, they may feel almost forced to say what they are hearing
the demon speak in their thoughts.  Again, this all depends upon
the level of the lie the person is believing.  No, this does not
mean the person is demon possessed.  I had demons speak through my
thoughts and out my mouth once and I never have been demon
possessed.  Fourthly, the communication can often occur with the
person speaking but their tone of voice will change.  Sometimes it
is distinctive enough that the uttering voice may not even sound
like the person with whom I am praying.  Demons love to play games
to try and maintain their position of deceitfulness.  An
additional category may be one of physical attempts at bodily
control but in my opinion, this is largely restricted to someone
not born again but, I know for a fact, that is certainly not
always the case.  Again, and I am sorry to keep repeating myself,
but it depends on the level of deception the person is facing.

     As we continued praying, the demon, as I mentioned, refused
to leave.  I had begun by asking Jesus if this demon had any right
to be there.  The man I was praying with said, "No," because
that's what he heard in his thoughts.  I already figured this was
true but since the demon did not leave when I told it to in the
name of the True Lord Jesus Christ, there was a reason.  When I
asked the Lord to reveal to us the truth, the man said, "to
disrupt our work."  With this lie exposed, I asked the Lord if it
was true this demon had that authority over the shop and the
business.  The immediate answer spoken by the man was, "No."  I
sent him away and this time he left.

     Let me shorten the story by telling you what happened.  The
next day the fax machine began working.  It began answering
incoming calls, too, and they got three new orders that same day.

     "Can demons do that?"

     "You tell me.  If you doubt the testimony I have just told,
I'll give you the man's phone number and you can call and talk to
him personally.  Why?  Because the man is my son.

How Big Is God?  The Size Of Your Mouth.
www.SafePlaceFellowship.com