Spiritual eyes see the lies
As you grow in your walk with Christ, you start to see things how they are. You begin to see the enemy operates in the world, in others, and in yourself. When your eyes of understanding open wider, the enemy has no reason to hide from you and they begin to manifest. Some people freeze and are left clueless, while others try their best to come against it, rebuking the Devil at the top of their lungs. In this blog I'll be explaining why demons talk, and what our response has to be when they do.
How Jesus responded to chatty demons
Mark 1 describes Jesus' first encounter with Satan's agent of darkness, an unclean spirit. As Jesus was preaching in the synagogue, a man began to manifest an unclean spirit and the spirit spoke out of the man saying, "Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God." Before we continue any further, I want to address a few things these unclean spirits knew about Jesus:
They knew who Jesus was
They knew where Jesus came from
They knew Jesus' calling
They were aware of the coming destruction of Satan's kingdom
What you need to understand about the spiritual world is privacy doesn't exist. Demons are able to enter into someone's heart when they don't understand God's word (Mat. 13:19), they are able to hear everything you say and use it against you (Ecc. 10:20), they can live inside a Christian's temple to bring oppression (2 Cor. 12:7-10), and they have permission to actively resist you (1 Thess. 2:18). There is more, but the point I'm making clear is that the enemy knows a lot about you. Some people get scared during deliverance sessions when demons are saying things about an individual that is true, and you shouldn't be afraid. This is because if they were able to know so much about Jesus then why would you be the exception? (Hope you don't have anything to hide!)
What was Jesus' response to this chatty demon? With authority and confidence, Jesus said, Mark 1:25-27 "Hold thy peace, and come out of him." immediately the unclean spirit came out as the man the spirit was possessing yelled in a loud voice. The answer to why demons speak is found in Jesus' commandment, "Hold thy peace". The phrase "hold thy/your peace" is found in several places in scripture, but Numbers 30 is what Jesus was referring to when using this phrase.
Establishing and nullifying vows
Numbers 30 is a short chapter, it talks about vows and details the effects husbands and fathers have on establishing and voiding them. If a father hears his daughter bind her soul to a vow, he has two options. He can either "hold his peace" and keep quiet, which would establish the vow, or he can "speak his peace" to disallow her vow and make her vow void. The same rules apply in the husband and wife relationship, the husband has the power to either establish or nullify his wife's vows by either "holding his peace" or "speaking his peace". But how does this apply to demonic oppression and deliverance?
There are laws in the spirit, and covenants are the basis by which an unclean spirit is able to gain entry into someone's spiritual temple. Ephesians 4:27 says "Neither give place to the devil." and lists a series of instructions for the body of Christ to uphold, don't steal, don't have corrupt communication, and don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Without going too deep into covenants, the basis of it is as follows, sinning creates an agreement with the kingdom of darkness and gives the enemy legal access to bring general oppression, sickness (Romans 6:19), or what some would call "possession" (Romans 6:16). There are many things, items, rituals, and practices done in the present age that create covenants with the demonic. You might have heard this covenant be referred to as a "legal tie" and it's referring to the same thing, an agreement made with the enemy through sin.
Satan defends his vows!
When people serve other gods, disobey God's word (which is witchcraft, 1 Sam. 15:23), or serve themselves (which is idolatry, 1 Sam. 15:23), God views this as spiritual whoredom (Judges 2:17). 1 Corinthians 6:15 tells us fornication links an individual to the person they fornicate with, and Jesus makes it clear in Mat. 5:28 that lusting after a person in the heart is considered adultery. Unclean spirits know this, and use temptation in hopes you'd fall so they could get linked to you, giving them the legal right to oppress you. Just as we who have accepted Jesus are seen and treated as the bride of Christ, the enemy has his own perversion. The Devil treats those who have any legal tie with him like a beaten housewife who isn't allowed to enjoy freedom. It's closely compared to a toxic and abusive relationship full of constant oppression enforced by Satan's army of demons. The enemy will do all they can to claim you as theirs, and they view you as their spouse! They don't leave unless confronted. Similar to a tenant who doesn't pay rent, they must be evicted in the name of Jesus Christ before they have to legally move out.
Why demons speak
This is why the demon spoke out of the man in Mark 1, the unclean spirit was doing its best to defend its legal tie, by speaking its peace. Again, just like in Numbers 30 the unclean spirit viewed it's host as its spouse and was releasing its peace in hopes of voiding Jesus' confrontation. Jesus' response was to command the demon to "hold his peace", forcing the true husband to the body of Christ to void the legal tie with the unclean spirit. So what does this mean for us?
How should we talk to demons?
We have only a handful of things we can address if we are conversing with a demon during an encounter, anything outside of this will bring oppression and prolong the deliverance process. Here is a quick list:
What is your legal tie?
What is your name? Mark 5:9
There is much more, but due to the nature of demons, I highly advise you to NOT go any further than this. If a demon manifests outside of a deliverance session, God wants you to rebuke it. This isn't as common as most of us think. Most of the time you'll be experiencing demonic manifestations when God brings people to you, and the individual knows they need deliverance.
When demons talk during a deliverance session
Deliverance sessions can't be run by the demon, and demons try to do exactly that. The person ministering deliverance needs to be in control. If you are doing a deliverance session on an individual (or yourself), you need to work with the person to discover the potential legal tie (sin) that the demon is using to stay. After the legal tie is discovered have the person repent and renounce the sin, and begin to rebuke the demon only in the name of Jesus Christ until it leaves.
If at any point the demon is speaking demonic tongue, speaking nonsense, or just talking to you about irrelevant things, you need to in a calm and authoritative manner command it to be quiet. Be very quick, especially if a demon is speaking in demonic tongue because they are cursing you and calling on other demons for help when speaking demonic tongue. Demonic tongue is usually a sign the person demonized has deeper roots in either witchcraft, the occult, or generational curses that haven't been addressed. Your response to the demonic tongue is to speak in tongues yourself, this often stops the demonic tongue for the whole session. If you don't know how then command the unclean spirit to be quiet, or to hold its peace. I often say, "I bind your ability to speak in demonic tongue in the name of Jesus Christ." This is because if I know it's a stubborn demon I want it to speak in English so I know what it's saying (At times the Holy Spirit makes the demon confess the legal tie but the demon will say it in a demonic tongue.).
After the demon is silenced and rebuked, it should leave fairly quickly, if not then there are unrevealed legal ties still present. This could be from a handful of reasons, the person receiving the deliverance refuses to confess the sin because of shame, the deliverance they want isn't in line with God's timing, or a generational curse hasn't been broken. You have three choices, you can keep rebuking until the unclean spirit comes out (which can take hours), you can pause for a bit to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the legal tie, or you can put the deliverance session on hold, and regroup with the person. If it's the last option, you should have the person seeking deliverance really press in with the Lord and let God reveal to them individually what the reason is.
Please don't get caught up in the legalism and sensationalism that has plagued deliverance in the body of Christ. Keep it simple, use the name of Jesus the way the Word shows us, and stand in your authority!
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