540 The Spiritual Man
one of a number of ways: “I don’t need deliverance, why should I
want to be delivered?” or “I have overcome through Christ; He has
overcome Satan already, so now I need pay no attention to him but
just leave him to God. I focus my attention on Christ.” or “I know
nothing about satanic matters.” or “I concentrate on preaching the
gospel, why should I notice Satan?” With these or many other
responses the believer dismisses the actions of the evil spirits in him.
And to those who try to help him he may even say: “All right, you
resist for me and pray for me.” He is not speaking with sincerity; he
merely desires to live in ease and let others sweat out deliverance for
him.
Yet in all this, it should be asked why anyone should object to
hearing about Satan and his works? Can it be that his mind has in
fact been worked on by Satan and hence is apprehensive about facing
the situation once it might be exposed? The truth is that he is familiar
with too many things already concerning the devil and does not care
to know any thing more. Yet the gospel of Jesus Christ saves people
not only from sin but from the devil as well. Why then be afraid if
the devil be mentioned when the gospel is preached? Is it not similar
to the person who has committed a certain crime and is afraid to have
anyone mention that particular crime? Due to his preoccupation with
the devil the believer resents people mentioning him. Deep down in
his heart he harbors a fear lest his true condition should be revealed.
Supposing I am indeed invaded by evil spirits, he gravely muses,
then what in the world can I possibly do about it now? Thus he
speaks to others as we have indicated above both to cover up and to
comfort himself.
But should a believer receive and accept the light and begin to
look for freedom, the evil spirits will commence to pour into his
mind loads of accusations which charge him with all sorts of errors
and which condemn and reprimand him in such a fury that he is left
with no energy to recover his lost ground. They know he has
obtained light and that they can no longer deceive him. They