If you are on board with the belief that we are now living in a unique period of history in which we are being called to stand against an increasingly decadent world, testifying to the truth of sin and evil, and of course witnessing to the salvation to eternal life offered by Jesus; and that we are also called to expose and stand against the irrational and evil rise of ‘lawlessness’ evident in an increasing number of coercive and irrational measures being imposed on us against our will, then you should also be concerned with gaining a better understanding of the enemy’s aims and tactics in the spiritual warfare in which we are engaged!
 
We are truly witnessing an historically-unprecedented manifestation of the “first fruits” of the fiend’s full-on flanking of the entire world’s population now, as he makes his final, frantic (but ultimately failed) attack on all that is good and from God.
 
Despite God’s victory over sin and death in the Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven of Jesus, after His cruel crucifixion, the devil still has (according to Scripture) a time on earth to test us, and a ‘final hour’, and will apparently succeed in capturing many souls in the effort.
 
That is not my opinion, but teaching according to the words of Scripture speaking about the great end-time’s deception that will lead many followers of Jesus into apostasy.
 
Jesus Himself spoke of a time to come when the deception would be especially great, when false messiahs and false prophets will appear, with His saying that even the people of God would be deceived if it were not for God’s providential protection:
 
“For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24, see also Mark 13:5–6, Luke 21:8).
 
All of these deceptions are instigated by the devil. However, 2 Thessalonians 2:11 also speaks of the deception as God’s punishment on people who refuse to believe the truth:
 
“The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12, ESV).
 
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3–4).
 
“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (1 Timothy 4:1).
 
NOTE IN LAST QUOTE: “….THINGS TAUGHT BY DEMONS”….;
 
but things that come to us primarily through the ‘evil men’ working in the world acting as conduits of that demonic teaching.
The primary “source” for the false teachings in the end-times’ deception is nonetheless from the demonic, so understanding more about that is important for those of us engaged fully in the battle.
 
If ever there was a time to be on ‘high alert’ against being deceived, it is now! Especially with those who believe that ‘faithfulness’ to the church is somehow a guarantee of ‘faithfulness to Jesus’.
 
The sad truth is that if you are ‘blindly’ following church leaders trusting that they are certain conduits of God’s Spirit and the truth you need to know to fulfil God’s will, then you are a prime candidate to be among the deceived.
 
Most leaders in most churches are themselves deceived, and no longer speaking truth to their congregations, no longer shepherding them by giving good guidance.
 
In fact, many are openly supporting and promoting lies constituting aspects of the great deception and manipulation of our consciousness and perception of reality, which was especially evident during the past 3 years with the government’s unconstitutional and immoral response to the WHO-declared pandemic.
 
So, if you don’t want to be among those blindly trailing along with the vast majority of people complying with perceptions and practices that are fundamentally idolatrous, but not necessarily clearly detected as such as a result of the blindness that comes with sin and/or deception, resulting in apostasy from God, then educate yourself about how you can be deceived and what you must know and do to ensure you won’t be!
 
There is unfortunately a certain point-of-view about never thinking about ‘demons’ that is increasingly prevalent among some circles of Christians on social media (even Catholics, who should know better); and that sentiment is:
 
“We should not give ANY consideration or attention to the workings of ‘demons’ whatsoever!”  For sincere believers, this is both ridiculous and incredibly dangerous counsel. Those striving to be obedient to Jesus and fully-engaged in this great final spiritual battle would do well to not only ignore that advice, but to spend some time learning more about the enemy!
 
In fact, for the purposes of personal spiritual growth, I would consider it ‘imperative’ to do so, such teachings being a core part of spiritual direction with every Christian spiritual tradition I’ve aware of!
 
If we don’t study the battle field, we’ll likely fail to detect and properly respond to demonic influences when they happen, and I believe such occurrences of undetected demonic influence have increased exponentially in the past few months.
 
I want to be clear that not EVERY ‘temptation’ to sin comes from demons: there are actually three sources; the flesh (our senses); the world; and the devil/demons.
 
Having said that, when we are tempted by something presented to us by the ‘world’ these days (porn images on the internet that just ‘pop up’ expectantly, for example); or temptations from our own senses (say, we remember a sinful pleasure, entertain images in our mind, which further excites our passion/desire for it, then we proceed to act on the idea), there is now a very good chance that those temptations from those particular sources (flesh; world) will be manipulated, amplified, etc., in such a way as to make the temptations much stronger and potentially far-more dangerous to the person.
 
So to say that we should not understand what we are up against now in the battle is the opposite advice to what I would give; hence, this post and the resources I’m providing with it.
 
The other attached image to the actual resource “Unseen Warfare” is a website that has nicely organized key teachings from the classic book, as well as other sources such as scripture, and takes the reader through a step-by-step process which may be something that works good for some people learning.
I haven’t had a chance to review the entire site, so I can’t really give it an equivocal endorsement; however, it appears from the drop-down menus to be faithful to the original text and teaching of the spiritual classic, so I’m including a link to the site thinking it may be a further aid to some of you wanting to explore and study this material more.
 
There are a few fundamentals to keep in mind about learning about demons and how to discern what the ‘enemy’ [Satan and all his minions, i.e., hordes of demons, each with a different personality and unique powers] are up to on the battlefield.
 
NOTE: It is, of course, IMPOSSIBLE to learn about demons without considering them…their true nature, their tactics, powers, weaknesses and limitations, aims, etc., so there are certain things to keep in mind when doing such study and/or prayerful mediation.
 
While invisible, demons are nonetheless present and influencing us regularly, whether we are aware of that or not, so ‘thinking about demons’, is simply to ‘become aware’ of the presence of these evil entities in the spiritual realm in which our soul dwells.
The ‘idea’ is not the ‘thing’, so simply thinking (as an intellectual activity of discursive reasoning, memorization, etc., – what we would call ‘studying’) in not in any way ‘engaging with’ demons, something we should NEVER seek to do for any reason, including curiosity.
 
If the very idea of learning about demons frightens you, you probably need to explore why that’s the case – they shouldn’t cause ANY fear for those in a state of grace and sufficiently spiritual to confidently ‘trust God’.
 
True, we have no power over demons, but our power is the Lord’s power in us, and they tremble and flee from that. So again, if you don’t have the Lord’s power in you, fix that core spiritual problem first before you do anything else by way of studying!
 
As for their engaging with us, well that’s the point, they’re doing that without our awareness, which makes them dangerous to us – we are made stronger knowing how they work, how to detect them, and how best to ensure they make no ground in their aim to deceive us and cause us to offend God!
 
So, as you study, keep in mind that they are malevolent beings who can hurt us if we’re stupid (think we have any personal power over them, or can engage with them without getting beat up spiritually) or if you don’t have the right disposition and intentions, which should always be to give glory to God, fulfil His will, and obey the Commands of Jesus:
 
1. Under no circumstances should a person ever engage in any ‘dialogue’ or conversation with unseen evil entities in an effort to obtain information, or anything, except in those extremely rare occasions where they manifest and we issue commands in the name of Jesus if in the very rare occurrence they should manifest;
 
2. When in a state of grace (free from mortal sin), demons are a heck of a lot more frightened of the pain our union with God can inflict on them then the other way around, so learning about them and their tactics is not something to fear whatsoever if one’s intention is to become a more valiant warrior in God’s army.
 
3. Jesus commanded his disciples (and empowered them) to command demons to come out of those who were possessed, and gave further “specific instructions” to his disciples concerning what to do when encountering some of the more powerful demons, when they reported to Jesus that they were unable to expel them:
 
“And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? 29And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” [Matthew 17:28].
 
Many years ago, I experienced a call to leave my first University degree program at UPEI in Religious Studies and spend 2 years living as a hermit at the Trappist Monastery in Rogersville, N.B.
I read hundreds of spiritual books during that 2-year period, but three books in particular I tried to read everyday as a daily meditation: (1) the Bible; (2) the Imitation of Christ, and (3) Unseen Warfare.
 
A mainstay of every Christian’s daily study and meditation in these end-times should be this classic by Lorenza Scapoli, “Unseen Warfare”. [https://stnoufer.files.wordpress.com/…/unseen-warfare…].
Here is a link to that website dedicated to unseen Warfare: https://www.unseenwarfare.net/
You can listen to this as a free “audiobook” on YouTube while you go about your daily tasks: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4Rzh86YJ3A…].
 
Unseen Warfare is a book with a great deal of practical wisdom on discerning, understanding and combatting the many wiles of demons in the constant effort they employ to derail us on our journey back to God and capture our souls for Satan.
 
Click on the image with words to see some of the particular chapters on this theme to get a sense of how central a study of the ‘enemy’ is to being successful in spiritual growth and gaining victory on the spiritual battlefield.
 
The other book I would highly recommend for daily meditation is “The Imitation of Christ” [https://librivox.org/the-imitation-of-christ-by-thomas-a…/ ]. Again, you can listen while you do something else for free here: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNVTB1Fszzc ].
 
Demons are intelligent and powerful, and must not be treated lightly, nor, again, should they ever be ‘sought out’ in any way for any purpose, even in what many believe are ‘innocent’ forms of entertainment like Ouija boards, reading tea leaves or tarot cards, etc.
 
Nonetheless, anyone who tells you that you should avoid “thinking” about demons is essentially telling you to remain blind and vulnerable to their constant attacks. Jesus commanded us to watch and pray, we need to know what to watch for!