Interpretation Of Matthew 12:45 – Demons

This article came about from another email question.  This is a very fascinating verse in that quite a bit of knowledge is given to us by God on what goes on behind the scenes with demons after they are cast out of a person.

In order to really understand this verse, you also have to look at the two verses that are right above it – verses 43 and 44. I will go ahead and give you all 3 verses below, and then give you some commentary as to what might be going on in this passage.

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.

Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” (Matthew 12: 43-45)

In just three verses, God is giving us quite a bit of information as to what is going on behind the scenes in the spiritual realm once a demon is cast out of someone. I will break down what God is trying to tell us in this verse under the following caption.

Interpretation

1.  The very first sentence tells you right off the bat that you are dealing with a demonic spirit who has been cast out of someone. The verse says – “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man.”

An unclean spirit is a demonic spirit. The fact that it is going out of the man means the demon was on the inside of the man.

And if the demon is going out of the man, then he had to either be cast out of him by another Christian or direct by God Himself. Otherwise, the demon would have never left the man on his own.

Once a demon is able to get on the inside of someone, they usually will not leave unless they are either cast out by God Himself, or another Christian who is acting under God’s leading and authority to cast the demon out.

The next sentence says that the demon then wants to return to the “house” from which he came out of earlier.

The house he is referring to was the person’s body that he was cast out of earlier. After a demon is cast out, this verse tells us that the same demon will then periodically return to see if the person has slipped up in any way in order to give him the legal right to be able to enter back into him again.

2.  Demons cannot enter into a person’s body just because they want to. There are spiritual laws that are in operation in the spirit realm and demons have to abide by these laws set up by God.

In order for a demon to be able to enter in a person’s body, they have to have some kind of legal right, some kind of legal permission to be able to do so. I talk about what some of those legal rights can be in my article titled, “Dealing with the Legal Rights of Demons.”

In some of these cases, the person has engaged in some type of sin that has given the demon the legal right to be able to enter into them.

Common door openers that will allow demons to come in on you are drugs, especially the heavier ones, abusing alcohol, any type of occult activity such as witchcraft, Satan worship, ouija boards, along with engaging in any part of the New Age movement.

Not every person who does all of the above will draw a demon into them. A hundred people may play the ouija board and nothing will happen. Then the next person will play it, and they will be the ones who will draw the demons to them. Why it happens this way, no one really knows for sure.

This is why a person is taking a very big gamble every time they engage in any of the above activities. They are taking a chance of drawing demons to them, and if they stay in that activity long enough, then the demons will have the full legal right to be able to actually enter into this person’s body!

And once that happens, this person is going to be in big trouble! Then the demons will have to be cast out either by God Himself, or by another Christian who is acting under God’s authority and power to do the deliverance. The demons will not voluntarily give up their position once they are inside of a person’s body.

Apparently it is much warmer for them on the inside of our bodies as compared to roaming in the air seeking who their next victim is going to be.

Also notice in this verse that once the demon is cast out, he is seeking rest and finds none. The dimension he is roaming about is dry compared to the human body that he was just inhabiting.

This verse tells you right there that demons would prefer to be living on the inside of a person’s body rather than roaming through the air.

In some of the deliverances I have read and studied, demons will state that it is “cold” on the outside, and that they would prefer to stay on the inside of a person’s body.

They have said that it is much warmer and comfortable on the inside of a person’s body as compared to the air which is on the outside of a person’s body. This is why many of them will put up some kind of fight once an actual deliverance starts up.

3.  The next sentence is the key. Once the demon returns back to the same person he had originally lived in, he will check him out to see if he has any legal right to be able to enter back into him.

If the demon finds it “empty,” then he apparently has the legal right to be able to enter back into this person. I believe God is using the word “empty” to let us know that people who have demons cast out of them have to become Spirit-filled! They have to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, along with making an attempt to grow in the grace and knowledge of God.

I believe the word “empty” is possibly referring to the fact that the person may not have properly grown in God after the demons were originally cast out of them.

After God makes a dramatic move on you to save you from this type of dire situation, He will expect you to start walking and growing in Him.

God wants that empty space to be filled up with His knowledge, presence, and grace – and the only way that can happen is if you start growing and maturing in the Lord.

Once the demon enters into the person’s body, they will then enter into the person’s soul. If this person is a Christian, the demon cannot enter into the person’s spirit because the Holy Spirit is already residing there. But if the person’s soul has not baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, the demon can then enter into the person’s soul as well as his body.

This is why it is so important that the person become Spirit-filled after a deliverance so as to prevent this from ever happening again.

When you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will then move up into your soul area.

And once the Holy Spirit is living up in your soul area, the demon will no longer be able to enter into that person’s soul again. A Christian can thus have the Holy Spirit dwelling in their human spirit, but at the same time have a demon living up in their soul and body area.

Once a demon is up in the soul area, this is how they can temporarily take control of a person’s vocal cords and literally speak right out through that person’s mouth at times.

4.  Now watch what happens next. The verse then says that if the demon finds the house empty and in “order,” not only will he enter back in, but he is going to be bringing back with him 7 more demonic spirits that are going to be even more wicked than he is!

This one verse is thus telling you that there are levels of wickedness or levels of evil even among demons themselves. In other words, some demons are going to meaner and more evil than some of the other ones will be.

In some of the exorcisms I have studied, I have seen this phenomena occur over and over again. You can tell when the deliverance minister starts casting the demons out one by one, that some of them are more wicked and evil than some of the other ones are.

The weaker demons will even speak out saying they would easily go without putting up much of a fight, but they can’t because the higher-ranking and more powerful demons will punish them if they do not try to stay in and fight as long as they possibly can.

Satan obviously has to be the most evil of all the demons and probably the most evil of all created beings – including humans. I believe he has disintegrated down to the lowest levels of the dark side and that he has now become nothing but pure evil. I seriously doubt if there is one ounce of goodness left in him due to the long time that he has been cast out of heaven.

I believe there is no saving grace left for Satan and the rest of the fallen angels who rebelled against God long before we humans were ever created.

Also notice in this verse that the original demon now has the legal right to bring back with him 7 more demons. Usually when someone has a demon in them, they usually have more than one. Most of the time, demons will travel in groups or clusters. There is one head chief demon who will run the entire show on the inside, and then rest of the demons will be his underlings who will be under his direct control and authority.

When casting them out, you can either take one of two approaches:

1. Bind all the lesser demons to the chief demon and then cast all of them out as one spirit.
2. Or cast out each one of the demons one by one.

The first way would obviously be the quickest and easiest, but you have to let God decide which of the two strategies He will want you to go with on any given deliverance. Sometimes God will want you to cast out each one of the demons one by one.

The reason being is that He may want the person to know exactly what kinds of demons were on the inside of them, and then why they were on the inside of them in the first place.

Each demon will have his own function name like “murder,” “hate,” “lust,” etc. Their names will tell you what their functions were on the inside of that person’s body and soul. And as they are coming out one by one by their actual names during an actual deliverance, the demonized person will then understand where all of those negative emotions were coming from in the first place.

This is why the Bible says that the truth will set you free.

5.  Now the last part of this verse says that if the original demon manages to get back in and brings back with him more demons who are going to be even more evil and wicked than he is, then that person’s second state is going to end up becoming much worse than what his previous state was. Why?

Because now the person will have at least 7 more evil demons in them than what they had in them the first time around. And these more evil and wicked demons will thus be causing much more torment, havoc and destruction on this person and their life than what the original demons did since they are much more evil and wicked in their actual natures and personalities.

The more evil a human being is, the more horrible of a crime they are capable of committing. And it’s the exact same way with demons. The more evil and wicked the demon, the more oppression, torment, torture, chaos, and destruction he is capable of inflicting upon that person just because he is a more evil and wicked demon.

Deliverance ministers have found out that some of the more evil and wicked demons are those demons who are linked to the occult. That is why it is so extremely dangerous to be engaging in any part of occult.

Bob, one last thing on the last part of this verse. I also believe that God is telling us that if the delivered person goes back to the same former sin they were involved in that drew the demons to them in the first place – then that will be the door opener that will allow the original demon to not only be able to come back into them, but to also bring back with him seven more demonic spirits who are going to be much more evil and wicked than he is.

In other words, if a person gets delivered from demons as a result of engaging in witchcraft, and then that person goes back into it 3 years later – God may end up pulling back His protection on them and the above scenario will then be allowed to take place. And if it does, this person is going to be in big serious trouble. God may not be so willing to cast the demons out the second time around, and the demons will then be allowed to make that person’s second state much worse than what their first state was.

Jesus Himself says that you are better off not knowing that you are in sin as versus someone who knows they are in sin, gets delivered from that sin, and then goes back into that same sin once again.

Demons just hover and wait for people, especially Christians, to trip up and commit any type of door-opening sin so they can either move in and start tormenting that person from the outside, or literally enter into the person’s physical body if they can go that far with it.

Conclusion

I have always found the above verse very fascinating, as God, in just three powerful verses, gives us quite a bit of information and knowledge as to what really goes on behind the scenes with demons. It’s simply amazing how much knowledge and wisdom is actually contained in the Bible.

The key is being able to cut into the verses and read what God is trying to tell you in many of the Bible verses.

God likes to make you seek and search after knowledge, and many of the Scripture verses have to be worked and cut into to really see what God is trying to tell you, to see exactly what the actual knowledge is that is lying underneath the verse. It’s like hunting for buried treasure.

God says that the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.

And in order to be able to find that treasure, you have to seek and search after it, just like you would seek and search for buried treasure that is underneath the ground. Same principle applies.