What are Demons?
Interview with Mihran Kulhanjian
What are Demons?
Mihran: Demons are unholy--evil, disembodied spirits; they are certainly real and as helpers of the devil they come to steal, kill and destroy us physically, mentally and spiritually. Demons are not fallen angels. An angel does not need a body to operate from, demons do. Demons are from a pre-Adamic race that God destroyed because of their wickedness.
We know through the Word that hell was created for Satan and for the fallen angels that followed him. Demons come to destroy the soul, working through our mind, then manifesting through the actions of the flesh. A demon is a person. A person without a physical body. He craves to occupy a body because he once had a body and can do nothing without a body. Therefore, a demon looks for a body to live in and make his home in.
A believer cannot be demon controlled or possessed, but a nonbeliever can be and many are. However, a believer can be oppressed by demons and be demonized, that is, they may be influenced by demons but never controlled unless the believer cooperates with the evil spirits, letting go of God's Word and His commands. A Christian who sins opens the door for a demon to enter. Repeated sin opened the door wider and wider for a demon to make its home in the person. Remember, a demon cannot do anything with the cooperation of the person, whether Christian or non-Christian.
A believer has the Word and the power and authority given to him in Christ to combat, reject, rebuke and resist demons whereby being delivered from the evil manifesting in the believer. This is invisible warfare. "Submit to God. Resist the devil [and his demons] and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). We fight against principalities, powers and rulers of darkness. Principalities, power and rulers of darkness are Satan's invisible army against God's people. Satan has formed a hierarchy of evil. However, demons are a bunch of peons. And we tell them were to go in Jesus' name. We have the power and authority in Christ to kick them out of us and out of others. I am 100 percent convinced that any type of addiction is from a demon. Whether the addiction is food, drugs, yoga, the occult, gambling, alcohol, cigarettes, excessive talking or any addiction. An addiction means a person is not in control of the action. Then who is in control? The demon is controlling the behavior of the person.
Demons, for the most part, enter through open doors. They enter by our permission. They need a home and take up residency in people by an open invitation, whether the person knows it or not. Demons usually enter through our sins, attacking the way we think and what we physically do, which is against God. When we sin, we give permission for demons to enter. If we continue in a particular sin, a demon could enter. Also, by generational curses and through traumatic experiences such as rape, evil and impure thoughts, repeated over and over again, could invite demons to enter a person. No one said the devil plays fair.
Demons enter when one is vulnerable and weak. Demons enter children because children are vulnerable and weak. Demons can also enter into the baby in the womb. Yes, this is unfair; but Satan is unfair--he is evil and will do everything he can to keep people from God. He is a tormentor, the accuser, and he and his demons torment. We were all born under the curse of inherited sin from our first parents, Adam and Eve. But Jesus came and set us free. Yet, only those who receive Jesus, trusting Him, in faith and obedience are set free from the wiles of the devil and condemnation when abiding in Jesus and God's will. We must renew our minds and be in the Word daily if we are to fight off the evil of this world. Put on the full armor of God [Ephesians 6:11].
We give permission to demons to enter by first thinking ungodly things and then acting on them. There are really many ways demons can enter us but the most common can be through repeated sin. I believe also everyone at one time or another has had a demon or many. Demons will bring other demons with them if the host is a chronically wicked person. For a person to have multiple demons is not uncommon, even among professing Christians. However, a true Christian is not demon possessed, because the true Christian is in the Word of God daily, also in prayer and supplication, and yielding all to God. In many Christians, demons manifest when a person is under certain stresses. A demon of anger, confusion or fear could manifest from a normally subdued state in the person when under stain or anxiety. In fact, anxiety is a demon. Unnatural fear is not from God--He has not given us a spirit of fear. So, this spirit of fear must be an unholy spirit, a demon. Not every wicked thing we do is from a demon. Many times we submit to our own carnality.
Demons cause illnesses and many illnesses and physical conditions which doctors cannot diagnose are caused by demons. Generational curses [diseases] from the third and fourth generation are caused by demons. God explains this in Exodus 20 in the Second Commandment. The good news is that we can expel demons, including disease, from our body through the Word of God. This is not a mystery. Most simply do not believe and act on their belief, therefore there is no healing. Jesus gave us power and authority over evil. We must exercise the power given to us.
When my brother and I owned two assisted living facilities in Florida it was a place of heavy demon activity. We had forty residences (patients) and on staff nurses. We were licensed for forty-two beds. The majority of the people were classified as schizophrenics or living with dementia. The word dementia comes from the Latin root word demon, which means out of one's mind or demon influenced. Paranoia, fear and anxiety were common personality traits among our people. With proper medication they were passive. We know that consistent paranoia, fear and anxiety are caused by active demons. God did not make us this way. And if it is not from God it is from the devil. With schizophrenia, demons control personalities, thus behavior that is erratic and uncontrolled. Schizophrenia can also be caused by generational curses. It can be a curse that is inherited. This is Scriptural, but I won't go through all of it here. Sadly, these poor people bound by demons had to be medicated twice a day (during breakfast and dinner) by our nurses. I did not know then what I know today about mental illness and the power in Jesus Christ to heal and to deliver out of bondage the demonized (influenced) Christian or the demon controlled unbeliever. There is great power in the name of Jesus and He has given us the power and authority in His name to do His will, which is the will of God.
I have come to believe, through my experiences, that a person (even a professing Christian) is demonized when the Word of God is revealed to them by a believer, and when they reject the truth with anger, uncommon laughter, and sneers, strange, unpredictable and wild behavior. I know people who profess to be Christian, yet are filled with demons of all sorts. They profess to be Christian, but do not believe in demons. They profess to be Christians but do not believe the Bible. They are sexually immoral, fornicators, yet profess to be Christians. They do not know the Word of God and they do not read or study His Word. Unbelief in the written Word of God is common these days with false Christians, who are demonized. I have experienced this countless times. There are demons of false doctrine and lying demons. The demons tell lies and false Christians believe the lies and live lives of torment, under false doctrines. If a professing Christian tells me there are many ways to heaven or to God, there is a good chance he has a demon, or stronghold over him. This is a lying spirit. There are demons who blind people of the truth of God's Word. They worship a different Jesus, not Jesus of the Bible. Demons attack the personality. A person's personality will change when demons are expelled from the person.
Are Demons the Fallen Angels that Followed Lucifer?
Mihran:: No. I do not believe demons are fallen angles. This is a controversial question. Many believe demons are fallen angels. But the Bible does not say this. Demons are disembodied evil spirits from a prior existence on the earth before Adam was created. Before the Adamic race there was a race on earth that was destroyed (I believe by a flood). This could of happened about 100,000+ years before Adam. The Bible does not give us this information. I believe God destroyed this prior race with a flood because of their evil. I could be wrong--this is my opinion on the subject. Between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 there are events and a time span which God has not offered to us. I believe there are a flood. It was the first world flood. The second world flood, God destroyed all except Noah and his family. There is an indication in Genesis 9 when God makes a covenant with Noah not to destroy the world again with another flood. Demons are the evil spirits that come from the prior race before Adam and Eve were created. Demons are not fallen angels. Angels do not need a body, but demons are disembodied spirits that need a body to operate from. They crave a body because they once had a body and cannot do anything without a body. Demons can enter and make a home into humans and animals. When Jesus cast out the legion (over 4,600 demons) out of the man, He sent them into the pigs. The pigs went mad, killing themselves by drowning.
What Do Demons Look Like?
Mihran: People who have seen demons through discerning of spirits said that they are small. They are hairy, ugly and monkey like. I had a dream one night only a short time ago. I was at my old Lakewood house, which was my childhood home. The house was sold back in 2005 and it has been nineteen years since I was in the house. The dream I had was short. I was holding the front door and trying to keep out this small hairy-like thing. It was like a blog of hair. I could not make out its face. The creature wanted to come into the house. I would open the door and kick it repeatedly as it was on the front porch; but my kicks only held him back for a few seconds and then he would continue to try to get into the house through the front door again. I watched him after I kicked him. I was confident he would not enter, and that I was stronger than him. I kept kicking him each time he tried to enter the house. I was kicking him hard, with a great deal of force. I was getting angry because he was not giving up easily. He kept coming back trying to get into the house. I finally kicked him one more time and shut the door and woke up from this dream. I believe it was three times he tried to get in. This demon did not get into the house. Now I did not hear about demons being harry, small and a monkey-like thing till a few weeks after my dream. However, I knew this little, persistent thing in my dream was a demon. I was aware of this during my dream. As I was kicking him to stay out of the house, I knew then he was a demon. I do not remember calling out Jesus' name during the dream. I just woke up after I shut the door.
Now how do I interpret this dream? It seems obvious that a demon was trying to get into me, but he did not succeed. When we are doing damage to Satan's kingdom, he and his demons come after us, sometimes attacking often. Satan is fearful of the committed Christian. And committed Christians may be under Satanic attacks regularly. This is why we must keep God close and understand the authority God has given us in His name, in the name of Jesus, to cast out devils. But they have no power over us as we are the children of God, abiding in Him, the One who empowers us within (Philippians 4:13). For we can to all things through Him, Christ Jesus.