Unclean
Spirits
Today's
Three-minute Bible Study
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Study and Apply
Title:
Unclean Spirits---------------------------------------
Date: 10/19/2002
Keywords:
"demons”
“unclean spirits"
Welcome
to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand
strong in the face of sexual temptation.
Passage:
Mark 3:11-15*
11. Whenever the unclean
spirits saw [Jesus], they would fall down
before Him and shout, “You are the Son of
God!”
12. And He earnestly warned them
not to tell who He was.
13. And He went up on the
mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted,
and they came to Him.
14. And He appointed twelve, so
that they would be with Him and that He could send
them out to preach,
15. and to have authority to
cast out the demons.
Questions
1. What does this passage
tell us about who Jesus is?
2. Look at verses 11 15 to get
an idea what is meant by an “unclean
spirit.”
Practical
help
In our age of
technological sophistication it is easy to discount
the idea of a spirit world. Isn’t that what
primitive tribes believe? This, however, does not
disprove the existence of demonic spirits.
Whatever you believe about any
subject is preceded by other beliefs. For example, as
a small child you believed what a parent told you
because you first believed that the parent existed and
was smarter than you. When it comes to God, you must
do the same thing. You must believe He exists and is
smarter than you. When you do, then you will learn to
trust what He tells you in Scripture more at face
value. (This does not mean that every word in the
Bible should be literally interpreted. He has given us
the ability to understand similes and metaphors, for
example.)
So when it comes to asking me my
opinion about the existence of demons (and I have
personally never seen one), I will point you to Jesus.
He dealt with them, and I believe He is who He says He
is and therefore will trust He knows what He is
talking about.
What’s the connection to
porn? Pornography appears as a pleasant harmless
enjoyable past-time — on the surface. Dig a
little deeper, and its ability to contaminate your
mind and distract your thoughts away from useful and
clean pursuits becomes very obvious. I wouldn’t
go so far as to call it an unclean spirit, but I would
say it is spiritually unclean. If you are viewing
porn, don’t give the excuse that you are
demon-possessed and therefore have no power. However,
don’t discount the idea that you can be
manipulated by spiritual powers you cannot
detect.
Note that Jesus does not use the
testimony of unclean spirits to convince you He is the
Son of God. He would rather not give them any credit
for your believing in Him and is willing to wait
patiently for you to discover His reality by other
means. Once you do believe Jesus is who He says He is,
then He will equip you to deal with unclean things
whether they be Websites or demonic
spirits.
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*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD
BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation
1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977,
1995. Used by permission."
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