5 signs of demonization

Introduction

Find yourself waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweats?

Or perhaps you have invasive thoughts or an illness that the doctors cannot seem to diagnose.

The cause for your problem may in fact be demonic rather than natural.

In this article I am going to show 5 signs that indicate demonization in someone’s life and then conclude with some practical tips on how to deal with them.

1. You have sleep paralysis attacks.

Sleep paralysis is a common phenomenon where people wake up in the middle of the night and find themselves unable to move. This terrifying experience often involves the sensation of something or someone sitting on the person’s chest. Others have even seen the demon in the room whilst they were unable to move. Sleep paralysis is a form of spiritual attack from the enemy and it is most likely to happen at 3 am. This is the time when witches and demon’s night time activities are reaching their crescendo.

Sleep paralysis attacks are most likely to happen when you are turning away from sin to begin living for Christ. I myself had severe sleep paralysis episodes when I was first turning to Jesus. This is because the demons turn nasty when they know you are abandoning a sinful lifestyle, as it means their time oppressing you is about to come to an end.

I have woke up in the middle of the night paralysed and seen a dark shadowy figure in the corner of the room. On another occasion, I had a sleep paralysis attack and there was a dark dog crawling down towards me from my chest of drawers. He stopped in mid-descent, upside-down with his paws impossibly keeping him attached to the wooden piece of furniture. Thankfully – his head and eyes were facing down to the floor as I would not have liked to see what his face looked like.

Anyway, these attacks eventually stopped as I made my commitment to follow Jesus clear. I was turning away from a sinful life in the New Age as well as drinking alcohol, smoking weed and other sinful behaviours. These sins had opened doors which allowed a lot of demons to attach to me and they now did not want to let me go – hence the sleep paralysis attacks. 

2. You have invasive thoughts.

Ever have invasive thoughts that just will not seem to go away? The medical community might describe this as a form of ‘Obsessive Compulsive Disorder’ but it can also be a sign of demonic oppression. They will speak lies into your mind and try and get you to believe them. Their whole purpose is to make you miserable and tempt you into sin or ultimately into taking your own life so that Satan can take your soul with him down to hell. 

One emotion that these invasive thoughts will try and trigger is fear. Similar to the sleep paralysis episodes this type of fear is meant to paralyse the person into inaction and stop them from being effective as a Christian. Maybe you are planning on doing something new for Christ like street preaching, but invasive thoughts keep coming into your head and telling you you will not be able to do it, or that you will look stupid. Chances are that these invasive thoughts are demonic.

Other people may experience uncontrollable urges or blasphemous thoughts that are not in their character. These can often make the believer feel guilty as they are trying their best to please GOD and live holy but still these hateful thoughts come in that they cannot seem to stop or have no control over. The believer may begin to think that it might be them that is saying this and that they have now committed the unpardonable sin by blaspheming the Holy Spirit. It is not true. These voices come from demons that are using deception to mimic your own internal voice, or even imitating the voice of the Holy Spirit to deceive you.

Satan and his cohorts are masters at counterfeiting. Pray for the spirit of discernment of spirits so that you will be able to identify these types of mind attacks when they are happening. The Bible says to test the spirits to see if they come from GOD and to take captive every thought in obedience to Christ so if you are having invasive thoughts which are not in line with the character of Jesus Christ then make no agreement with them and cast them out in the name of Jesus.

3. Unexplained illnesses.

Not every illness has a medical cause – some are caused by demons. There are demons of infirmity, deaf and dumb spirits and all manner of unclean spirits that can and will cause disease in a person if they are not cast out. In the book of Matthew, Jesus casts a demon out of a boy who was foaming at the mouth and could not hear or speak. Nowadays, he likely would have been diagnosed with mental illness in addition to being deaf-mute, but Jesus knew better and when he cast out the demon from the boy he got better.

Things have not changed since the time of Jesus. Demons are still afflicting people and causing mental and physical illness. There have been countless testimonies where people underwent deliverance and then received a miraculous healing of their condition. Demons love to cause sickness and disease because it makes the afflicted more likely to begin to resent their lot in life and and end up cursing GOD and going to hell. This is what Satan tried to achieve with Job. Satan caused boils to appear all over Job’s body and tormented him in his mind with the intention of trying to make him curse GOD. The scripture is clear that this was caused by Satan rather than having a natural cause so if you have an unexplained illness that defies medical diagnosis it may be time to suspect the diabolical.

4. Irrational anger towards Jesus.

Demons cannot stand the presence of GOD or the preaching of the gospel. Have you ever seen, perhaps on YouTube, someone getting irrationally angry or even violent towards a street preacher? This is a sign that they have demons inside them. If the preacher was talking about anything else other than Jesus on that street corner no one would bat an eyelid, but as soon as the gospel is preached the demons come out of the woodwork.

Sometimes as demons manifest people are even frothing at the mouth, and their eyes change to black as the demonic spirits in them come to the surface. These manifestations are one of the ways that ministers can tell if someone is in need of deliverance. There are varying ways that people can manifest and show that a demon is present. These include: laughing, coughing, yawning, crying, getting angry and many more. If the person is receiving deliverance these manifestations can be a good sign that the deliverance is working as it means that the demons are coming to the surface and are now more easily cast out than if they were in hiding. So if someone is getting irrationally angry simply from being in the presence of a Holy Spirit filled believer or from hearing the preaching of the cross this could actually be a sign that they are being demonized.

5. Dreams of defilement. 

Another way that demons attack a person’s life is by coming into their dreams on the verge of a breakthrough and planting evil deposits. The Bible says that Satan, ‘while men slept sowed tares among the wheat.’ Oftentimes a believer will be expecting a promotion or a breakthrough in life and right before that job interview or on the day before their marriage even, a sexual dream of defilement will visit them in the night.

These dreams have very real consequences and can frustrate and scatter any progress that the Christian has made in their spiritual life. It is actually a demonic spirit that is having sex with you in the dream. The demons may be unable to tempt the believer into sin while they are awake so they resort to these night attacks which have the aim of defiling them and causing setback, delay, stagnation and even illness.

Another common dream which indicates a demonic attack is if someone is eating food. This dream is one that can cause illness in the body as the satanic forces are feeding you demonic food such as human flesh and this can lead to serpents being implanted in the person’s body. These dreams must be prayed against and the blood of Jesus applied to destroy the works of the devil. If you have one of these dreams these most definitely indicate that you are being demonised.

These dreams can scatter any progress you have been making. You may be courting a woman and it’s going really well and then right before you were about to get engaged with her you had one of these dreams of defilement then suddenly she goes cold on you and tells you she no longer wants to continue the relationship as she does not see you as a valid marriage partner. These types of dreams are serious spiritual attacks and should be prayed against with violence and aggression upon waking. Take authority over the devil and tell him in no uncertain terms that you command him to stay out of your dream life in Jesus’ name and make sure every night to put on the full armour of GOD as you go to sleep.

Conclusion

While this list is not exhaustive – we have now covered 5 signs that show that a person may have a problems with demons.

So now I know I have got demons what do I do now?

The most important thing you can do if you want to get rid of the demon problem in your life is to turn away from a sinful lifestyle. 

Sin gives demons legal rights to afflict you and while you are living in sin they will likely just laugh at your attempts to cast them out.

The second thing is to realise your own authority in Christ. Authority matters in the world of the spirit. Some men called the Sons of Sceva were attempting to cast out demons in the book of Acts chapter 19 but the demons did not recognise their authority. 

They said, “Paul and Jesus we know, but who are you?” This is why it may be helpful to contact a deliverance minister who is experienced with casting out demons. However, all of us have been given the ability to cast out demons ourselves and hence I think it’s important that we learn to do self deliverance prayers and step into our own authority which Jesus gave us.

Jesus tells us in the Bible that one of the signs of those who believe will be that they will drive out demons in His name. (Mark 16:17) It is not just a gift that is the preserve of deliverance ministers. Each and every believer has the ability to cast out demons by using the mighty and matchless name of Jesus!

After you have repented of of any known sin and realised your authority in Christ it is time to start praying targeted and aggressive prayers against them using the blood of Jesus, the fire of GOD and of course making all of your prayers in the name of Jesus. 

If GOD has given you the gift of discerning of spirits you may be able to discern that a certain spirit is operating – for example the spirit of rejection. When the demon has been identified call it out by name and say, “You spirit of rejection I bind you and I cast you out in the name of Jesus.” Say this with all the authority you can muster and with the faith behind it that GOD will deliver you from every evil work as His word says that He will. (2 Timothy 4:19) 

If you do not yet have the gift of discerning of spirits then pray to GOD for it! He will surely give you this gift if you persist in prayer as it is a benefit for His kingdom. However, it is not necessary for the casting out of these demons you can simply say something like, “You unclean spirit get out of me in the name of Jesus.”

Once you have identified that you or someone you know has a problem that is in fact demonic it is important to go all in on them as there are so many problems that being demonised can cause. If you are still struggling to get free perhaps you have a strong-man demon or in some cases if you have a powerful destiny Satan may have even dispatched a fallen angel to wrestle with you directly. In these cases it may be pertinent to seek outside help. There are many great deliverance ministers out there who can help you.