Idolatry can open the door to demonic spirits. In 1 Corinthians 10:12-21, things the gentiles sacrificed, they sacrificed to demons and not to God. So idolatry opens the door for demons; as does dedication to a temple or an idol.
I want to look just briefly at the issue of blood. Sometimes you’ll find that when you’re dealing with people involved in the occult, then there is blood involved. You need to be alert for this one. In Leviticus 17:14, the Bible says: the life is in the blood. Demonic spirits seek to bring people into agreements, and they seek to engage in trading. One way they do it is by blood covenants. Blood covenants originated with God, and the devil realises the power of this – the powers of alters and sacrifice – so he tries to encourage people to build alters, or to make sacrifices.
In 2 Kings 3:27, Israel was in a place of great victory, pursuing an enemy army, and then suddenly the battle totally turned. The king that they were facing, offered his son as a sacrifice on the wall of the city. The Bible says: there was great indignation against Israel. In other words, he invoked spiritual powers, because of the shedding of the blood of his own son. So, when you are dealing with people involved in the Occult, enquire whether they’ve made any blood covenants, shed any blood, invited demons and cut themselves. Just enquire whether there’s any bloodshed, because that needs to be clearly broken.
The Bible tells us in Colossians 1:14 “We are redeemed by the blood of Jesus”. In other words, the blood of Jesus has more power than any other offering. In 1 Peter 1:18 “we are redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus”. But we need to apply the blood of Jesus, and what it has done. So, putting it in a very simple basis - life is in the blood. When blood is shed, covenants are formed. God’s plan is we’re in covenant with Him through the blood of Jesus. Demons want us to covenant with them, through our own blood.
We prayed for someone just recently, and her blood was taken by her parents, and then taken to the temple, and dedicated to the idol. She didn’t go there, but her blood went there. So, we need to just be aware of these kinds of things, and understand the great power released by blood. The blood of Jesus releases great power. So in various parts of the world, those involved in sorcery will make offerings, and they will shed blood - the blood of animals, or the blood of human beings - in order to draw supernatural power around their life.
Just be aware when you’re dealing with the occult, to enquire how the connection was formed. Whether there was blood involved, or sacrifice involved. You’d be surprised how many young people have made blood covenants with demons; and they need to renounce the agreement and the shedding of their blood.
I want to move on a bit now. I want to give you a number of symptoms of people who are under occult oppression. In other words, what would we look for? What are some of the evidence? It helps if you can recognise that. Usually, they’re reasonably self-evident. For example: 1) Unexplained noises at night; unexplained noises in the house - that’s usually an occult activity. 2) Hearing voices – the person’s hearing voices talking to them - that’s usually evidence of demonic activity. 3) Objects moving unexpectedly - that’s scary. 4) Doors opening and shutting. 5) Lights going on and off. It’s quite scary stuff really. 6) The appearance of spirit beings. When spirit beings appear, that can be a major source of problem. 7) Physical sensations of being sexually molested, but there’s no one there.
Now this one’s more common than you think as well. There are particular spirits that sexually molest women and men. The sexual demon that molests women is called the Incubus spirit; the one that molests men is the Succubus spirit. These are sexual demons, occultic demons, and they will molest people at night - possibly even pinning them on the bed, and the person may go through all the feelings and sensations of being molested or raped - but there’s no one there to see. That is a demonic spirit. Of course, people are ashamed to tell about it, because they feel they won’t be believed. So you need to be alert, if you hear anything like that, or sense anything like that - just enquire of what has been happening, and be willing to believe the person if they tell you: this is what is happening to me.
A person having tormenting sexual thoughts - that can be an occultic demon e.g. extreme heaviness and oppression; or agitation in meetings where anointing is flowing; inability to focus on spiritual things; literally confusion. These are some symptoms that show occultic activities are taking place, so we need to be able to look and ask: what’s happening in your life. There may be a whole number of doorways that people have gone in. We’re going to have to then look at how we’re going to minister to people. What are the steps in setting people free?
First thing is: we need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us. We need Him to expose the roots. We need power from Him. 1) Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the roots - this is totally dependent on the Holy Spirit. 2) Diagnosis – we need to find out what the problem is.