Bible Discussion Thread

Verse16) "All the spirits fled when he commanded them to leave ..." Satan and his demons exist like mental thoughts. The only way you can identify one is by its purpose and intent. Usually a person under this attack can't tell his thoughts from the thoughts of the demon. But sometimes they can. In any case, their tone of voice often changes, and their thoughts, actions , and words become agitated and hostile. And the intent and purpose of the spirit become manifested. But in a religious setting, this can take on a misguided religious affect, with slanderous, emotional displays.

This means that the spirit world is not in another time, space deminsion as many believe. Otherwise we we would have no contact with them. And they couldn't possess people. Their deminsion is their spirit state, pure bodiless mind power or intellect without shape or form. And it is right here, and we can witness its effects.

One of the purposes of a demon is to pervert Jesus' human creation. Another purpose is to feel the effects of living in a body, something they do not have. This way they can commit murder, lie, steal, etc., and blame it on the human victom. They do this by inhabiting humans. We call this possession.

They flee at the word of Jesus because they know he is God and has ultimate power. This is what we see taking place in verse 16.