Have you ever thought about this: If God is light and He is good and all things that were made were good and there was not anything made that He did not make, where did devils come from? Well, one thing we know is that they were not made. God never made devils. He made angels and they decided to fall and become devils. However, these are the big devils. Where then did the demons come from? If the fallen angels are called devils, then who are these demons that are smaller spirits? That was one question I asked God.
Another question I had for Him was I wanted to know from God whether a devil can read my mind and if yes, how does he do it. Can a devil find out what I am thinking? If he can, then I am in trouble. I had proof that sometimes he did know what I was thinking, but sometimes he didn’t. Where then is the barrier? How do I know when he knows what I am thinking from when he does not know? I have been praying to God about this and I have to say that God is great. I don’t think some of us know how great a God we have. He will drop you into circumstances just to answer your prayer. Any time you find yourself in a fire, don’t cry out, “Oh God, get me out of here, quick, quick, quick! Get me out!” Just stop a little and ask, “Why am I in here?” You will find that you prayed yourself into that fire. You might have prayed, “Oh, God, give us great blessings today. Lift us up, Lord.” In order for God to get you up, He has to throw you down, because some of us won’t get up unless we are thrown down.
So I found myself in circumstances where I was able to get answers to my questions. I went to a meeting that was nearly thirty miles away from my home. In those days we had no transportation, we just walked. That whole night after the meeting I was walking in order to get back home. When it came near morning, I began to enter into thick woods close to my house. Suddenly, I heard somebody behind me. I thought it was a man. You must understand, I didn’t even know how to be afraid of a man. Because of the way I lived in the past, it was not really possible to be afraid of a man. I, therefore, walked along, picked up a stone and threw it ahead of me. “Chip-chip-chip” it went into the dry trash. I quietly went around a tree to see this man come. But he, whoever he was, came to a certain distance from me and stopped. I thought, “Well,” and went on. I came around a big rock that was jutting out into the trail. There were no roads in that wood, just little trails. This trail went around the rock so I came around it and threw a piece of stick on ahead. And again, I was waiting for this man to come. The thing came on the other side of the rock and stopped. At that moment I realized that I wasn’t dealing with a man. In other words, this intelligence, whatever it was, knew what I was doing.
Notice my thoughts: I was thinking naturally like men think, carnally – to hide behind a rock as if it was a man I was after. As he would not have come closer, I went on. I said, “Since you are a spirit, follow me home.” There was something that came into my heart, yet I didn’t know where it was from. Today I know it was of the Lord. It was to answer my prayers. I said to God, “God, let me know what a spirit really is. I want to feel him. I want to touch him. I want to feel this thing tonight. If it is following me, then it is some form of substance.” I went into the house, put on my pajamas, jumped into bed, and pretended to snore. As I put on this false snore, the door opened and this thing came in. I was pretending to be asleep, so I couldn’t open my eyes. When he came in, the door cried on its hinges, and I knew the door had a cry right at that spot. If he had any sense, he would have known that I was not sleeping. But he was a stupid devil. Some of them are actually like that. My charade went on for what it seemed like eternity and I wondered whether I was going to keep it up. When he came over to my bed, the floor cried, and I knew the floor had a cry right at that spot. It told me that he must have had some kind of weight. The Lord gave me the knowledge that he was going to jump on me, stretch himself over me, and not be able to strike me until he comes to my size. I had my hands ready waiting to catch him. He eventually jumped right in my chest and began to stretch himself over me. I felt great vibration. It was like a powerful motor at work. As I felt this vibration, I knew it was power. He was there vibrating and I felt him going down my legs and my feet. I was still doing my best to snore. He came right out until he touched my hand and I grabbed him in the name of Jesus. When I did so, he was frightened. That blessed me, because I realized he didn’t know I was going to grab him. It means he didn’t know what was in my mind. One time he knew my mind, and then all of a sudden, he didn’t know it. If it was a prince of devils, I would have a hard time deceiving him in such a simple way. After I grabbed him, he wrestled with me. He was like a snake; as if I grabbed onto a serpent and he twitched and twitched until he actually pushed me out. I realized that something was wrong, because he was overcoming me. I forgot about my weapons! It is hard to struggle and be in the Spirit at the same time. So I was struggling naturally. But God reminded me and I began to think about the cross of Jesus. I recalled the body I saw hanging on it. I recalled the Blood coming down his armpit. I recalled the Blood flowing from his feet. I recalled the Blood coming out of his side. At that moment, the devil began to lose and I started to win the battle again.
Do you know what God showed me afterwards? The battle is really in your mind. It wasn’t my strength or manly force that pushed that demon down. If that were it, I would have been beaten. I would lose the battle. But it was when my mind was on Jesus Christ that I had the strength of Samson. Have you noticed in the Bible that every time Samson was about to do something the Spirit of the Lord came upon him? And as soon as He did, the man became Superman.
I squeezed the daylights out of this devil. I lectured him and said to him, “If you would jump on a million Christians, at the end of the day you will be in hell burning forever and ever.” He couldn’t take it. He slipped out of my hand into the corner of the room and cursed me. Then, an interesting thing happened. When he cursed me, his name came out of my mouth. I realized I knew his voice, because I knew the man whom the voice belonged to. Brethren, let me just tell you plainly: men become demons. If you watch the nature of a man, you will notice that some men become demons even before they die. If they cross a certain line with God, they will not find any more repentance for sin, and consequently, there is no turning back. Judas became a demon before he died and that is why, when he turned back and tried to repent, he could not find repentance. He had crossed the line with God from which there is no return. Jesus gave him every opportunity to turn back. If he chose to accept it, the scripture would be written in another way.
If you ask any theologian, he will tell you that demons are made by God, that they are fallen angels. However, think about it: a fallen angel never had a physical body, why then should he be seeking to have your body to function in? Why should he be seeking to smoke and drink and harlot himself? Why should he be seeking a body in which to express his demonic self? Don’t you see something is wrong here? A fallen angel does not want your body. He is comfortable in his own spiritual one. The only being that wants the body of another human being is someone who is a disembodied spirit. A spirit that once had a body and lost it and is seeking another one to go into.
I want to show you that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood,” and that the battlefield is really in our mind. Do you know what God showed me? He showed me that if your mind falls below a certain level, you are a goner for you are in the devil’s territory. Satan is king, but not in our realm. Jesus is King in our realm. If your mind is on Jesus, Satan has no way of winning. And God is saying to us that the area of the mind is where our victory lies.