In this sermon, the speaker discusses how demons can enter a person's life and influence their behavior. He gives an example of a businessman who has a terrible day and how his anger allows a demon of anger to take control of him. The speaker explains that there are different areas within a person where demons can reside, such as emotions, attitudes, and false religions. He also mentions specific areas where demons can operate, such as sex, lying, criticism, and gossip. The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing these areas in order to be delivered from demonic influence.

If these are present in your life, more than one, or if they are very intense, you should begin to check. You probably need deliverance. And bear in mind all these are activities of persons, because we're dealing with persons without bodies. First verb, entice. Demons entice. They tempt people to do evil. And if you analyze your experience, you'll find that enticement often comes in a verbal form. A beautiful gold pencil has been dropped on the floor and you stand looking at it and something says to you, take it. Nobody will know. Other people would do the same. If it was your pencil, they'd take it. You know what that is? Anything that has a voice is a person. Behind that voice is a demon enticing you. None of you have ever experienced that. It's just me. Demons harass, or harass, depends what part of the world you come from. They study you, they follow your movements, they know your weak moments, they know your weak places, they know just how and when they can get in. The example I usually give is the businessman who's had a terrible day in the office. Everything went wrong, his secretary was inefficient, the air conditioning failed. And then on the way home there was a traffic jam and he was an hour on the freeway. And then when he gets back home, believe it or not, his wife is late with the supper and the kids are running around screaming. And as he gets in through the door, he does what we say, he blows his stack. Okay, you know what happens? That demon of anger that's been on his tail all day, jumps in. And after that his wife notices a certain change in him. He's still a loving father and husband. But there are certain times when something else takes over. But you notice there's a kind of different look in his eyes. And although he loves his wife and his children. He makes life miserable for them, when that comes upon him. And then he's so ashamed and remorseful afterwards, he said, I don't know what made me do it. Well we do know, it's the demon of anger. Number three, they torment. Now the Bible speaks about the tormentors. In Matthew 18, I believe the demons are the tormentors. In Matthew 18, in the parable of the unforgiving servant. The servant who wouldn't forgive his fellow servant, a petty debt, was delivered by God to the tormentors. I have met hundreds of Christians, in the hands of the tormentors. You know why? Unforgiveness. If you have any unforgiveness in your heart against anybody, you are a legitimate target for the tormentors. And satan is a legal expert, he knows when he's entitled to move in. There are various forms of torment. There's physical torment. The example I would choose is arthritis. When you look at arthritis, you've seen the devil in action. Twisting, torturing, crippling, binding. Mental torment, one that's unusually common, is the fear of going insane. So that's not your problem. Your problem is a lying, accusing spirit, which is taking away your peace and the assurance of your salvation. All right, number four, they compel. I think there is no more distinctive word than the word compulsive. Almost anything compulsive, is liable to be demonic. Compulsive smoking, compulsive consumption of alcohol. But let's not stop there. Compulsive eating is just as demonic. Gluttony is just as much of a problem as alcohol. But it's a respectable one. You can't be an alcoholic in church, but you can be a glutton. There are other forms of compulsion. Compulsive talking, garrulity. People who can't stop talking, have got a problem. And they are a problem too. Number five, demons enslave. That's very close. You see, let's say you've committed a sin in the area of sex. You repent, you go to Jesus, you receive forgiveness and cleansing. You're justified, just as if you'd never sinned. That's all finished with. But if, after all that, you still have this intense drive to commit the same sin again. Even though you hate it, you're enslaved. One very common example is masturbation. Now some psychologists and people say masturbating is all right, it's healthy. I just don't even argue about that. But I know there are thousands of people who do it and hate themselves for doing it. And every time they say, never again, but it never works. They are enslaved and there is a demon of masturbation. It's very common. Let me tell you now, before we go too far in the meeting. It has certain specific manifestations. What will happen is, the person's fingers will begin to tingle. I've had so many people, brother Prince what's the matter with me, my fingers are tingling. And sometimes they go stiff and they bend right backwards. And I just whisper in the ear, your problem is masturbation. Renounce it, claim the cleansing blood of Jesus and get rid of it. But it's very stubborn. Many times people have to actually shake it out of their fingers, in the name of Jesus, to get rid of it. Now you put four and five together. Four plus five equals addictions. Okay, compulsive enslaving. You put them together, they're addictions. We are all familiar with many forms of addictions. Some are very unusual. My first wife and I dealt with a young woman, a Pentecostal church member, who was addicted to nail varnish. She just wanted to smell nail varnish. She told us, when I walk into the cosmetics department of a store, I've got two options. I can either buy nail varnish or run out of the store. But I've got to do one or the other. When she was delivered of that thing, it came out screaming and it tore her. There are other addictions. You know the commonest and latest is TV. TV is just as much an addiction as alcohol with many people. They cannot walk into the room with a television set without switching it on. They don't even think, they don't know what they're going to see. But they just have to reach for the television set just like an alcoholic reaches for a drink. And I think probably it does more harm in the long run than alcohol. Number six, they defile. They make you feel dirty and unclean. Especially when you're worshipping God. You're just about to get into the presence of God and this dirty image or this filthy word is projected into your mind. Anything that rises up, when you're about to worship God and opposes you, is almost certainly demonic. Or when you want to read your bible. One common example is the demon asleep. You know the bible speaks about a spirit of slumber. Have you ever noticed people, if they want to read their bible at 10 p.m. they're asleep by 10 15. But if they want to watch television they can stay awake till after midnight. Now that's not natural. There's a supernatural force that there, that enjoys them watching television, hates them reading their bibles. You understand? All right, number seven, they deceive. They are the deceivers. I believe basically all forms of spiritual deception are demonic. And you know what opens the door to deception? Pride. I doubt whether there's ever any deception that doesn't come in through the doorway of pride. Pride inevitably leads to deception. Number eight, they weaken, make sick or tired. There's a demon of tiredness. Remember dealing with a woman once. She said I can't stand this session any longer, I'm too tired. I was about to get sorry for her and I realized it was a demon. I challenged it and said that's right, she's always tired. She's tired when she gets up. She's tired when she goes to bed. She's too tired to pray. She's too tired to read her bible. That's one of the ones that the others hide behind. Or they kill. Remember satan is a murderer. He kills people physically and there's a spirit of death that he sends out to kill people. All right now if we're going to take one word to sum up. It would be the word restless. Demonized people are usually restless in some area. The person who can truly relax and be at peace, probably doesn't need deliverance. Now the next thing we're going to deal with and I think this will be the the last. Although I wish I could go further, because we haven't much time. Is their areas of residence. Proverbs 25 28 says this, whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls. So that compares the inner nature of human personality to a city. And when the person has no spiritual defenses, that city is open to almost any evil spirit that wants to come in. You take a drug addict, that's his description. Anything can get into him because his walls are broken down. But in a city there are a lot of different areas. There's the area where the wealthy live. There's the slum areas. There's the banking and commerce areas. There's the sports areas. There's the various ethnic areas. I used to live in Chicago and this was, you know, there was the areas where it was all Poles, all Swedes, all Jews and so on. And so inside you and me, there is a city with various areas, with characteristic residence in each area. You understand? I'm going to give you a little list of the areas. I'm not a professional psychologist. This is simply based on years of experience. The first area, number one, the main one, is emotions and attitudes. And I put in parenthesis, gangs. Because there are gangs of demons. And each one opens the way for the next. And if you meet one, you should start searching for the others. Now my personal opinion is, behind every negative emotion and attitude, there is an evil spirit. Anger, fear, loneliness, misery, self-pity, pride, jealousy. That's a tremendous list. Now the fact that you experience anger, doesn't necessarily mean you have a demon of anger. But if your anger falls into the category of those verbs that we've discussed, then you probably have a demon of anger. There are certain root problems which, out of which the rest grow. I think the greatest single root problem is rejection. And rejection leads to a whole series. Loneliness, misery, self-pity, depression, despair. And when you've got that far, you're headed one or other of two ways. Death, if it's passive. Suicide, if it's active. I don't believe anybody ever committed suicide, except under the impulse of an evil spirit. That's my personal opinion. I can't prove it. Another very typical problem is rebellion. Which leads to resentment, to hatred, to to anger, to violence. And you know, produces the typical gang leader and so on. Number two is the mind. In a way though, mind is the battlefield. Characteristic spirits that affect the mind are doubt, unbelief, confusion, indecision, insanity. And I've discovered that people who've been in the occult, almost always have a problem with confusion. Depression, you can call it either emotional or mental. It doesn't matter, but it's there. The next area is the tongue. There are a lot of characteristic demons of the tongue. The main one is lying. The Bible speaks about a lying spirit. There are people who are compulsive liars. They don't even know when they're lying. I had a friend like that. He was the president of the full gospel businessmen in a certain city. He was also characteristically a salesman. He was a fine Christian, a wonderful talker. And he'd sit in our living room and start the talk. And his talk would get more and more interesting, but improbable. And my head would begin to swim. And I think, does he believe what he's saying? Do I believe what I'm saying? What he's saying? But it just kind of flowed out of the natural into the supernatural. Now you know the reason I discovered how that spirit came in. He was an adopted son of wealthy parents. They had no other children. All their eggs were in that one basket. They wanted him to be everything. And he discovered that when he came home with his grades from school, they were disappointed. Because they weren't good enough. And when they registered disappointment, he decided that wasn't worth it. So he just lied about his school grades. You understand? And that started him into the whole field of lying. I believe ultimately he was delivered. But it was such a revelation to me. See compulsive liars are very deceptive because they don't even know they're lying. They can pass a lie detector test. What else? There are the two church going demons. Criticism and gossip. I was in a church meeting once and lady came up with a demon. I said your problem is criticism. I said you spirit of criticism come out of her. And about four people around started to get delivered at the same time. Exaggeration, the evangelistic demon. Blasphemy. I was a slave of blasphemy when the Lord saved me. Absolutely incapable of speaking without blasphemy. Unclean speech and so on. Negative talking. Number four, the thing that nobody talks about in church. Sex. Because it's not discussed in church, the people with problems in the area of sex go to a psychiatrist. And he says madam you have a guilt problem and your problem centers in your religion. Give up your religion and you won't feel guilty. No they don't all say that. I would say if you sat in church for 10 years and still feel guilty. Your problem is your religion, really. I would change to another religion. If that's all it can do is leave you feeling guilty. Now we have to say certain things about sex. First of all sex is not evil, it's good. We have to clear away that misunderstanding. God created man and woman sexual beings. And after he checked on everything he created. He said it was all very good, including sex. One of the big problems in church is, we're just not honest about sex. We're ashamed about it. We're prudish and we encourage problems by that attitude. I would say every form of compulsive sex aberration is demonic. Without exception, masturbation, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, effeminacy and all sorts of horrid perversions that we won't talk about. I would say every one of those is demonic. Now you don't have to feel ashamed, but you do need to resolve your problem. Number five, lusts. Now we could have included sex under that heading, but it's such a distinctive area, I kept it separate. Perverted desires and appetites. I believe all appetites initially were healthy. But by sin and demonic power, they've been perverted to become unhealthy and destructive. 1 John 2 16 speaks about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes. There is demonic power that controls eyes. Some men have to look at women in a special way. They're absolutely incapable of not doing that. That's a demon that's focused in their eyes. As I've said already, gluttony is a very clear example of a perverted appetite. I had a woman once who traveled 70 miles in a snowstorm to Chicago to be delivered. She was the daughter of a Pentecostal pastor. Like many people in that situation, she'd rebelled against her parents and their religion. Married an unsaved man and ended up miserable. She had three children. She came and got delivered from this, the demon of gluttony. And she said to me afterwards, Mr. Prince no one can tell me this isn't real. It's just as real as having a baby and rather like it. And I've had three. And then she told me she was so compulsive in her gluttony, that she would take food off her children's plate and eat it. Even though she knew they needed it more than she did. You see, let's talk about addictions for a moment. Addictions grow on frustrations. They're branches on a trunk. And if you merely deal with the addiction, you haven't solved the problem. Take alcohol and gluttony. One woman is a Episcopalian. Her husband runs around with other women, doesn't care for her, doesn't give her enough money, so on. All right, she gets frustrated. She's got to get some release. She walks across the living room to the cocktail cabinet, becomes an alcoholic. The other woman is Church of God. Okay, her husband does exactly the same. But for that woman to get to the cocktail cabinet, would be a lengthy journey. So where does she go? To the kitchen and opens the refrigerator. But she becomes a foodaholic. But the difference is minimal, really. And in either case, to help them, you've got to deal with the basic frustration. Which is their attitude toward their husband. All right, we have to go on with the list. Number six, the whole realm of the occult. I'm just going to write occult. But that is a vast realm. And every part of it is demonic. Even the respectable parts. And I would not involve you to be involved in yoga exercises. Let me say that. I was in yoga. I was a practicing yogi. And I would tell you, there's nothing in that I would touch with a 10-foot pole. You don't have to depend on yoga for physical health. The Lord will give you physical health. I'm just saying the occult is a deep dark pit. It's one of those caves where all the steps, footmarks lead inwards. And none ever lead out. All right number seven, all false religions. Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhism, Hinduism and in some respects Judaism. Okay, there isn't a false religion that doesn't have a demon among it. Satan is an expert in the field of a religion. It's the main area in which he operates. Number eight, all heresies. And by heresies I mean departures from the Christian faith. Let's turn to 1st Timothy chapter 4 for a moment. Now the Spirit expressly states, the Spirit capital S, the Holy Spirit. Now the Spirit expressly states that in latter times, that's the times in which we are living. Some will depart from the faith. What faith? Christian faith. Why? Giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. This is happening on a wide scale today. And then it goes on to say, it gives some examples of their errors. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot ant, forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with Thanksgiving, etc. Particularly on the west coast of the United States. You'll find hundreds of thousands of people to whom that applies. They're becoming super spiritual, they decide not to marry. Or if they're married, they don't cohabit with their spouse. And they're going to be super spiritual by what they eat. Now I believe in eating wisely. But I don't make a religion out of it, you understand. The moment it becomes a religious issue, you're on the verge of the demonic. And you'll notice that people who get into food fads can't talk about anything else. That's another mark of the demonic. No matter where you start, you always end up with food. Don't eat this and don't eat that. There are lots of things I don't eat. But I do not make a religion out of it, you understand. All right number nine, the area of our physical bodies. And we have dealt with many examples in the Gospels. Certain things I think are normally demonic. I would never say always. The first one I'd put on the list is epilepsy. And I have seen many, many people delivered. We, Ruth and I were in Lexington, Kentucky about two years ago now. And I had a blessing. A woman came to me, she was probably about 40, with her daughter about 18. And she said, Mr. Prince 10 years ago you prayed for me and I was delivered from the spirit of epilepsy. Here's my daughter, she has the problem. Pray for her. I was happy for that testimony. We prayed for the daughter, I have no doubt that she was delivered. I have seen scores of people delivered from epilepsy, when it's treated as an evil spirit. If a person comes to me in a meeting, I'll say no I believe that's an evil spirit. I'm prepared to command it to go on. Do you want me to? Are you prepared? Because there may be a fight, there may be a struggle. If you don't want to, I won't do it. Some people say yes, some say no. All right, that is as far as we can go. We've dealt with the primary activities of demons. That list I think of nine verbs. And here's the primary areas, in which I have observed them operating. You see a person may be completely clear in the area of sex, but may be in a false religion. Or a person may have no spirits in the mind, but may be bogged down in the emotions. Or a person, let's say, may be in a heresy, but be perfectly healthy. You understand? So there's a whole choice of areas. All right, that's the end of the first session. God helping us, we'll complete this in the second session. There is one other message in this series. For further study, we also recommend the series Deliverance and Demonology, number DD1, and the Curses, Cause and Cure, number CC1. For further information and a resource guide containing all audio and video cassettes and books, please contact Derrick Prince Ministries, Box 19501, Department T, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28219. Telephone 704-357-3556.