You’re Demon-Proof Against the Spirit of Death
I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes (Hosea 13:14 KJV)
Through Jesus we have eternal life.
The powerful thing about this is that our eternal life begins the moment that we receive our salvation through Jesus. Our spirit is regenerated and is renewed each day. While this is powerful, we must also remember that God’s intent is for the whole man to experience salvation.
When Adam was originally made, before the fall, his physical body was already a glorified body. When Jesus returns, all of creation will be filled with His glory. This resurrection glory will change the physical bodies of all of God’s people. The mortal will put on immortality, and even our physical bodies will no longer experience death. This includes those who are asleep. Their bodies will be raised from dust, just like how God originally made Adam from the earth. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. This will make it impossible to die. But in the here and now, we can be taken by God rather than die of sickness and disease.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:52-57 KJV).
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:23 KJV).
For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:25-26 KJV).
Against this, the spirit of death is not difficult to understand. This spirit entered the earth at the fall of man. Its goal is to cut people’s lives short on earth. Masses of people leave the earth prematurely. The devil intends to use people as his instruments of evil, and once he has no more use for a person he kills them. If a person becomes saved and is having a great impact on the earth, he desires to remove them from the earth so they cannot continue to advance God’s Kingdom.
Spirits of Infirmity
Spirits of infirmity are demons that are responsible for the world of sickness and disease. Not all diseases are caused by demons; however, there is a demon that can manifest in every form of disease. The spirit of infirmity works with death. When a person is sick, they are experiencing something that was not originally in the Garden of Eden. Some of the clearest signs of a spirit of infirmity are medical conditions that doctors cannot identify. The reason they cannot diagnose the issue is because the root lies in the spirit realm.
Sometimes a person may not die prematurely from the sickness, but infirmity also partners with spirits of poverty. Every time you have to purchase medicine, pills, medical equipment, and things of that nature, this is the devil swallowing your finances. We see this in the life of the woman with the issue of blood. She was a wealthy woman until she became sick. Over the course of 12 years, she had lost her wealth going to physicians. Medical science does a great service to humanity, but it has limits. It cannot deal with spiritual matters. It has no jurisdiction in the spirit realm.
Sometimes the spirit of infirmity will also manifest in sicknesses we do not think are a major deal. We see this in Peter’s mother-in-law:
And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. And Simon’s wife’s mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them (Luke 4:38-39 KJV).
In the above mentioned text, Jesus had just left the synagogue and gone to Peter’s house with him. When they arrived, Peter’s mother-in-law was sick with a fever. Jesus rebuked the fever and she immediately got up and began to serve them. It’s unclear how, but the word may have gotten out that Peter’s mother was healed, because after this Jesus would heal the sick from sunset until daybreak. Remember to never be upset with your pastor for holding long services again! The Bible describes the people being healed as Jesus casting out devils. This means that many of the sickness that people were being healed from were infirmities.
We do not have to settle for sickness and disease. We can come into a revelation of the resurrection of Jesus so that death cannot live in our bodies. We can see the reality of the resurrection, not just in the dead rising, but even in our mortal bodies in the here and now.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body (2 Corinthians 4:10 KJV).
His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth (Job 33:25 KJV).
Familiar Spirits
One of the most ancient practices on earth is that of a medium. Mediums work with familiar spirits who imitate the dead. Through this, the devil deceives people into believing that they can communicate with the dead. For this reason, I have included familiar spirits due to their connection with the dead and the spirit of death. The scripture passage below is actually one of the most detailed stories of how a medium conjures up spirits.
Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee. And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth (1 Samuel 28:7-13 KJV).
In this text, we read that the woman with the familiar spirit “brought up” Samuel. She was directly conjuring up spirits that function under the earth. Saul had wanted guidance, but unfortunately, because of his rebellion, God would not respond to Saul. So rather than repenting, Saul decided to turn to witchcraft.
Saul had previously removed all witches and warlocks from the land of Israel. So you can imagine how hypocritical it was for Saul to turn to the very thing he removed from the nation. Saul decided to search for someone with a familiar spirit. He went to a place called Endor in northern Israel and found a woman who was still secretly operating in witchcraft. King Saul disguised himself and took two men with him at night to see her. These things help us to see how Saul knew that it was wrong. He did not want it to be known that the king of Israel who drove witchcraft out of the land was now going to the devil for answers.
The woman was reluctant to help Saul because she perhaps had to be very careful who she practiced her craft around. Saul assured her that nothing would happen. She knew that it would have meant death if these men were not being honest. Eventually, she agreed to call up a person for him. Once she did, she was afraid because what appeared to be Samuel came up. She was afraid of Samuel because of his spiritual pedigree and all of the frustration he brought to the world of witchcraft. She also became afraid because she realized that this man was King Saul. Perhaps she thought it was a trap to see if she was illegally operating in witchcraft.
Saul assured her again that nothing would happen and he asked her what she saw. She told him that she saw gods coming out of the earth and that she saw an old man with a mantle on. When she said this, Saul immediately knew it was Samuel. Samuel proceeded to tell Saul that he would die and reminded him the kingdom had been taken from him by the Lord.
There are several ways that we can look at this text. The first would be that when the witch went to conjure up a familiar spirit, God in some way intervened and caused Samuel to actually appear before them. My only argument with this line of thinking is that a witchcraft practice would more than likely not bring up Samuel. This would mean Saul was able to speak to Samual, who was the righteous dead, through witchcraft. I believe the spirit that came up was a familiar spirit. One of the reasons people go to mediums to do necromancy—the practice of communicating with the dead—is because these spirits are so good at imitating their lost family members.
A few years ago, there was a bishop who lost his father at some point in his life. He went viral on social media because he wrote about going to a medium because he missed his father so much. He shared that he actually spoke with him and that it was extremely refreshing. This bishop could not tell the difference between the familiar spirit and his father. He genuinely felt he had an actual experience with his father.
In this biblical story, I believe what we are really seeing is that the familiar spirit took on Samuel’s appearance and said exactly what Samuel would say if he encountered Saul. Much like what happened to this bishop, who was unfortunately deceived. The only reason that I don’t believe that this is Samuel in this text is because talking to the dead is forbidden in the law. It is a sin to attempt to communicate with the dead. We must take note that what led Saul to find this woman was that God would not answer him through prophets or through dreams.
I want to elaborate on a few of the more common signs that indicate you are in need of deliverance. The first sign that someone is dealing with graveyard spirits is excessive fear. Whenever a person has many phobias or they feel as if someone is following them, it is often a sign that they are dealing with the spirit of death. These individuals who are fighting graveyard spirits will have a constant fear of death. They will be plagued with thoughts of dying. They often think about how they might die, and they often wonder if some type of misfortune will take place in their life.
When someone is dealing with these types of things, they are actually in need of deliverance. The root of most fears is actually the fear of death. Whenever someone is afraid of something, the reason is that they have connected it somehow with death. So if a person is afraid of heights, they’re afraid to fall and die. If someone is afraid of snakes or spiders, they are afraid of being bitten and receiving lethal venom. We do have a natural, healthy fear that God has programmed inside of us, almost as a warning to keep us safe, but the spirit of fear is completely different. It’s excessive, without reason. One of the reasons the person is dealing with such fear is because they can actually sense the activity of graveyard spirits in their life.
