The world has a fascination with the supernatural. It’s natural. Excuse the pun.

It’s clear that humans have a desire for things that are beyond them – the supernatural. The television is filled with shows of people hunting Ghosts, tracking the supernatural, searching for the unknown and unexplained. These shows are popular as well. That’s why there are so many of them.

However, those ghosts that these people are hunting aren’t ghosts at all. Sadly, they don’t know that and the majority of the people watching them don’t either. That still hasn’t stopped people from watching, people from making the shows, and TV stations from airing them.

There is a fascination with these things though. There’s a reason for that. As humans, we are naturally drawn to supernatural things.You see, the human being is a spirit. And as such, we are drawn to things that are of the spirit. However, the majority of the world has been caught up in this natural world so much that we don’t seek things of the spirit. But for those who do, it’s important that we seek the right things of the spirit.

Let’s start off at the beginning – man is a spirit, has a soul, and lives in a body.

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:23

God is a spirit.

“God is a Spirit…” – John 4:24

The devil is a spirit.

“Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”” – John 13:27

““How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!” – Isaiah 14:12

These two scriptures, as well as countless others show us a picture of what the devil is like, what demons are like, and how they operate in the world.

The Rev. Billy Graham once said, “The devil is actively engaged in combating America’s growing religious revival. The proof of the devil’s work is the increasing interest in the occult–including astrology, tarot-card readings, ouija boards, palmistry, fortune-telling, and particularly, witchcraft. It is perfectly obvious to all of us in spiritual work that people can be possessed by demons, harassed by them, and controlled by them. More and more ministers will have to learn to use the power of God to release people from these terrible possessions by the devil.”

An issue that we have today, because of the fall of man from God’s intended position in the earth, is that humans seek natural things because they are surrounded by natural things and consumed by the natural way of life. However, there are others that seek after the spiritual things in life.

There is a spiritual realm and it effects everything that happens in the natural realm. There’s not enough time to go through this, but you can check out the post I did a while back on this issue.

But we have some people that seek the spiritual. Some do this because they have a personal relationship with God and seek Him, who is a spirit. Others choose to believe in false religions and seek after the gods of those religions, which are in truth demons.

Yet others, which the people who ‘hunt’ these ghost probably fit into, don’t have any particular organized religion they adhere to. They simply have a yearning for the spiritual, which they can’t understand, so they say they are fascinated with the subject and want to know the truth.

So they seek after these things that the world has called ‘ghosts.’ However, they are nothing more than demon spirits lingering around to deceive, torment, hurt, and lead astray those who would come in contact with them or the stories about them.

Spiritualism was a popular fad back in the early 1900’s. Harry Houdini, the legendary escape artist/magician, did a lot to unveil the truth about many of these fakers. For one, this goes to show that there was and is a fascination, a desire within humans to want to know and seek out things of a spiritual nature. And two, even though Houdini exposed many of these tricksters, there were some and are many today that are not faking. They have a real connection with the spiritual realm – not dead people, but demon spirits.

You see, when we die, there are only two options – Heaven or Hell. There is no third option, there is no waiting room. There is no hanging around “down here” until something happens. When we take our last breath, we enter into eternity, not into a continual loop of haunting some place that was special in our lives.

These ghost on the other hand, do do this. Some would make the point that there are ghost that know things, such as those that speak to psychics. No, these are just a class of demons, some call familiar spirits. They are familiar spirits because they are familiar with people’s lives. So when someone talks to a “ghost of someone who has died,” they are really talking to a demon spirit that has been hanging around that person before they died.

Now these demons that people call ghosts can effect us in the natural realm. They can have an effect on people, as mentioned earlier. They can possess people, harm people, even kill them in some cases.

“When Dr. Lester Sumrall was building a church in the Philippines in the 1950s, he heard on the radio about a girl who would fight with something nobody could see, though people could see toothmarks and saliva on her. She had to be confined in a jail cell.

Doctors and psychiatrists examining her asked her what had been biting her. She said, “There are two hairy-looking monsters. One is big and the other is small, and they attack me.” They were demons manifesting themselves in the physical realm. Of course, she was not a Christian.

Dr. Sumrall got permission to see her. When he first entered the jail cell, the devil supernaturally spoke through her in English, “I don’t like you.” The devil cursed him, cursed God, cursed Jesus, and cursed the blood.

After Dr. Sumrall got the girl delivered, she couldn’t speak a word of English. He had to communicate with her through an interpreter.

The devil had spoken out of her mouth supernaturally. Those toothmarks were real. That wasn’t the girl talking in English, saying, “I don’t like you.” It was the devil. So the devil can do some supernatural things. But, thank God, we do have authority over him.”  (The full story can be found in Dr. Sumrall’s book ‘Exorcism: The Reality of Evil…and Your Power Over It!’)

Now you must understand, my intention here is not to glorify the devil or demon spirits. Oh no! It is simply to correct a misbelief that ghosts are the spirits of dead people. They are not. They are demon spirits and they are not friendly. They are not complacent. In fact, they utterly hate human beings. And for some reason, some how, some have dominion in certain areas of the world to be able to make noise, make light, disturb people – all to an extent that people think they are ghost. Of course there are other ones, more violent, spirits of murder and death, that will harm people.

You see, when people go ‘hunting’ ghosts, they are really hunting demon spirits. And when they do so, without any protection (and a powerpack from Ghostbusters won’t help), they get on that devil’s territory and open themselves up to those spirits. Those spirits can just as easily latch themselves onto people’s lives, cause them to pick up what we would call bad habits, bad character traits, personality deficiencies. Now not always, if these ignorant people are blessed, but many times these people can develop a violent attitude, addictions, hinderances in their lives from things that they didn’t have before, even diseases.

There was a story in the news just the other day about two people who ended up dead in their apartment who once starred on the Travel Channel’s “Ghost Adventures.” They were estranged husband and wife and the husband ended up killing the wife and then himself.

Now I know what you’re thinking, that doesn’t prove anything. Not really. If you take what the Word of God says about demon spirits, and it says a lot actually, and what many wonderful men and women of God have taught over the years – men and women who knew God and had the power of God working through their lives – healing, demon-delivering power – it all stands together. No, it’s not necessarily the fault of “ghosts” that these people died. But demons don’t just sit back and do nothing when people seek them out.

No, they influence them. The majority of demons will not violently lash out like the one Dr. Sumrall talked about. No, they will slowly influence you, hinder you, torment you, and drive you away from God. That’s what they do. Because they cannot hurt God, they hurt the one thing God loves – the human race.

Now. With all that said, let me say this. There is power. There is power over demon spirits. It’s power through the name of Jesus Christ. There’s authority in the name of Jesus Christ. However, that authority doesn’t just come because you use the name. It comes because you use the name, you know the authority that is in the name, and you have the right to use that name.

Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. – Acts 19:13-17

In this scripture, the seven sons of Sceva used the name of Jesus, but they did not have the right to use it. They were not born again children of God. Jesus told us that it was the sons of God, Christians, that had the authority, the right to use the powerful name of Jesus Christ.

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; – Mark 16:17

So there is power in the name of Jesus Christ. You don’t have to be afraid. You don’t have to be stupid either. Some say, “Well I have authority, I’m gonna go get rid of those demons.” No. As one minister said, “You don’t have to go chasing any demons, there will be plenty chasing you.” If you get into the will of God, you will come across some and you will have authority to take care of them then.

Now, for those who are sitting at home watching these people unknowingly hunting demons – STOP! Turn the channel. Stop letting that satanic garbage into your house and into your life. The Bible says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Philippians 4:8).” Watching that junk is none of those things. And doing so is a direct violation of the Word of God and the will of God.

If you want more information on this, check out Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin’s books “Bible Answers To Man’s Questions About Demons,” “The Origin and Operations of Demons,” and “Demon’s and How To Deal With Them,” as well as “The Triumphant Church.”  You can also read Dr. Lester Sumrall’s books “Demonology & Deliverance Vol. I & II,”  “101 Questions & Answers On Demon Powers,” and “Exorcism: The Reality of Evil…and Your Power Over It!”

Stay with the Word of God and the Spirit of God.