03/10/2024
BEING DOMINATED BY EVIL SPIRITS.
Jesus said to me that anyone who is walking in darkness can be dominated by rulers of darkness. They rule over all unsaved people and anyone walking in darkness, including believers who are walking in darkness.
That's why sometimes even saved people can yield to these spirits and let them dominate them if they are walking in darkness—if they're not in fellowship with God and walking in the light of His Word. Evil spirits will dominate believers, if they allow them to—by consent, ignorance, or disobedience. That's the reason people, including believers, do certain things and don't know why they do them.
Jesus said, "That's why sometimes people who commit acts of darkness say, 'I don't know what made me do that.' Or that's why perfectly good people say about someone else, 'I would never do anything like that,' and before long, they've done something worse."
Jesus said that's why sometimes even in someone's own family, a family member does something strange or out of character, and other family members say, "What in the world made him do that? I've never seen anything like that!"
The reason they do it is that they are being dominated by rulers of darkness—demons and evil spirits. If they're walking in darkness, they are being ruled over and motivated by those rulers of darkness.
Jesus gave me First John 5:19 to illustrate what He was talking about: "And we know that we are of God, and the whole WORLD lieth in WICKEDNESS [darkness]" (1 John 5:19).
Jesus said to me, "Every unsaved man and woman, regardless of who they are—whether it's your kinfolks or someone else's kinfolks, your brother, sister, mother, or father—every unsaved person is in the kingdom of darkness. And they are ruled or motivated more or less by these demons or evil spirits who are the rulers of the darkness of this world."
Then Jesus said, "Whether they want to admit it or not, or whether you or anyone else wants to admit it, that is absolutely the truth." Those who have not been born again and who have not come into the Body of Christ are still in the kingdom of darkness. So every person who is not in the Kingdom of light is still ruled or dominated to some extent by those demon spirits in the kingdom of darkness, although they may not know it (Eph. 2:1-3). That's the reason people do and say things they said they would never do."
We see many examples of the unsaved being motivated by evil spirits. For example, I was preaching in California one time, and I read in the newspaper that a twenty-eight-year-old young man had deliberately drowned his own four-year-old son in the bathtub.
When the authorities questioned this young man, they found he was all right mentally. He had no record of wrongdoing, had a good job, and lived in a fine home. He had no financial worries, came from a good family from whom he had inherited part of his wealth, and had worked in the family business. They couldn't find one thing wrong with him.
He told the authorities that there wasn't anything wrong with him mentally; he wasn't worried, had no problems, and the child was good. "But," he said, "while I was bathing him, I suddenly had an uncontrollable urge to harm him, and a voice told me to drown him. I yielded to it, and when I came to myself, I was holding my child under the water. I cried, 'Oh, God, why did I do that!'"
You see, he was dominated by evil spirits—rulers of the darkness of this world—because he was in darkness; he wasn't saved. But believers don't need to be dominated by evil spirits because we have been delivered out of the kingdom of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of light (Col. 1:13). We are in the light where Jesus is our Lord. He is the One who is to dominate us. He is the Ruler over us. He is our Head, not rulers of darkness.
Satan is the head of those who are unsaved. If the unsaved people of this world really knew the truth, they would run to Christians to find out how to get saved so they could come out from under Satan's dominion.
There is a spirit world that is even more real than this physical world. People need to know that. When you talk about the spirit world, you have to realize that God is a Spirit (John 4:24), and that the devil, demons, and evil spirits also exist in the spirit world, as do angels—both good and evil. But believers have authority over evil spirits; the unsaved do not, for Satan is their god.
- Kenneth E Hagin ( The Triumphant Church )
- JESUS SAVES TV