demonic shadows, strange noises, etc.

[V8Tsunami]

I hope you guys will pray for me, I could really use it right now. This is long but I really need some insight into this situation.

It seems like the last few month's I've either been letting my imagination run away with me, or am under a demonic attack. Basically, every now and then, I'll see a fast moving shadow or flash of light in the corner of my eye, or hear a noise when the room is empty and completely still. Basically movements and noises in a room where there shouldn't be anything happening. It's very frightening. It only happens in an empty room when I'm the only one there, or others in the room are asleep.

Here's when it started. I attended a Pentacostal Chuch with a college friend for a year. Before attending this church I'd seen the supernatural once, maybe twice in my lifetime. I got rebabtised in Jesus name (as opposed to in the name of the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit). The last night I attended the chruch a speaker talked of the spirit of discernment that delivers you from temptaions, about demonic possessions, and of a wicked sexual demon in the form of a human shadow. (Made Inuyasha look like a family show)

I came home that night, and I went to bed. Suddenly, there were noises where there shouldn't have been and shadows moving on the wall. I got up and looked around, sure enough there was a moth in front of a light. Just then, a shadow stood face to face with me, frightning me to death. I instanly said, "devil, I dunno what you're up to but get outta here in Jesus name." It left, but it wouldn't leave until I went into my parents bedroom and stayed there. But that thing stayed by the door and the windows until I went to sleep.

Basically, every now and then this "thing" or "ghost" comes back. I tell it to leave in Jesus name, pray, or sing hyms, but it comes back a few min or days, or even weeks later. It's like it leaves as soon as I let my guard down.

I think it's one of 3 possiblities:
1. It's a demonic spirit of lust that was forced out of me or was released through sin. I read in the scripture something like "when a demon is forced out of a man's home, it looks for a new home. It goes and tries to find a new home but none exist. Then it goes and gets 7 more demons, an returns to the man's home from which it came, and the man is worse off than when he started."
2. I unknowingly prayed an evil spirit into my life at that church.
3. I got scared of what I heard and my imagination went into overdrive, and am overeacting normal, everyday noises.

The thing has been dormant for the last month or so but is coming back hard tonight at work, even now as I type this. Please pray for me guys.

[Arnobius]

Demonic activity is real, but not as public as the movies would have us believe. I can remember when I first began to live as a Christian, I also began sensing these things, but was never sure if it was real or my imagination, and this faded in time.

While the demonic is not something I've dealt with in theology outside of the theoretical, I do recall, that the devil can make use of his existence in two ways:

1) To try to convice us he does not exist
2) To try to get us to to overly obsess over him.

If the devil can make you obsess over him and disrupt your peace, that is a way he can try to attack your faith. He doesn't need (and seldom uses) a physical presence. Demonic possession is rare and happens only in individuals who actively live a life contrary to the will of God. Trust that God looks after you and keeps you safe. Even if this is some supernatural presence, it cannot directly harm you.

If you are certain that this is not just of natural coincidence, you might want to speak to whatever minister you have in your church and tell him what you are experiencing. He might be able to offer you some prayer and counsel in how to deal with this. Since there are a lot of different beliefs in the different Christian denominations, I really couldn't give you more specific advice. I'll pray that God may grant peace.

[Kawaiikneko]

Wow I don't really know what to say or what advice to give, but I'll pray for you right now and hope someone with more know-how can answer you.

I do know though that Jesus is within us and according to Matthew 28:18 that he has all the authority in heaven and earth. I believe Christians who have Jesus in them and are in a relationship with him are immune to spells cast by witchcraft users and protected from possession by demons. *writes you down in my lil prayer notebook and prays for you now*

Edit: The "7 demons return thing..." is more about a person who gets demons cast out of them/has a "confession", but doesn't fill that space with Jesus. The demons will eventually just come back because he doesn't try to change. That might not be right though... do you have the reference so I can look at the context?

[dragonshimmer]

My prayers are with you, dear. Those are horrible, horrible experiences, but with Christ, you can rest assured that all will be well.

[sunet]

i will pray for you.

[Hitokiri]

I have gone through them as well. Not that extreme that you haave told us but of that sort.

I will be praying.

[Syreth]

I agree with AnimeHeretic. These kinds of experiences may be troubling, but don't let them draw you away from Jesus, or else the devil succeeded in something. I'll definately be praying for you.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

thats kinda scary ^^;; i will pray for ya and for that demon to leave and stop bothering you

[Hephzibah]

I'll pray for you as well
Something that might be a good idea is to tell your pastor, and ask him/her and the elders to pray through your house. Esp to pray the blood of Jesus on all the walls, windows, doors, etc, that way the demon wont come in. Also, maybe ask God if there is anything in your life that has given Satan a foothold in your life, and if so to help you get rid of it.
That's all the advice I can think of now matie, but I will continue to pray for you

[Riku777]

I remember my pastor telling me when I got baptised a few years ago, "Congradulations! Remember though, life doesn't get any easier now that your baptised, but gets even harder to stay clean because satan wants to take you away from the path your taking right now." My first week after baptism was hard, I found myself being tempted more and more to do things I wouldn't ever do. Satan has realised that God has gained another child into his kingdom of heaven and that he's losing this battle, so, like your sig says, don't give up, because satan's not gonna win.

Like AnimeHeretic said, Demons can not hurt you when you gave jesus inside of you. I'll pray for your peace, and that whatever this thing is to leave. Keep us updated k?

[Anna Mae]

I think you did the right thing by rebuking it immediately. Well done. I am not sure what I have to offer in the ways of counsel, but I will be praying the blood of Jesus over you.

[TrigunX89]

I will pray too.

I had a discussion with a family member about this before, who experiences things like this. Satan can never hurt you, for God gives us power over him. All Satan can do to us is lie to us and try to scare us. You did right to tell it to leave in Jesus' name. I was told specifically to say, "In the Name of Jesus by the power of His shed blood." If you repeat it over and over it should go away.

But more than anything, you should tell someone else who believes in these things and get them to pray with you. The Bible says that if two or more agree in prayer, it will be done.

I apologise, I have to go right now. I will try to finish what I was saying asap. I don't know if it will be helpful at all or not, but it was helpful to me. Anyways, my prayers are with you. I hope things get better soon.

Edit: Okay, I'm back to continue.

From personal experience, Satan will leave you alone much much faster and easier with two people praying against him. I suggest you do this, even though you may feel wierd about it or don't want to bother anyone about it. I've always felt wierd about it, despite the fact that I have 2 Christian parents who would love to pray with me. You see, the devil will lie to us. He tells me that it's silly to bother anyone else with this. He is also the one scaring us. That's all he can really do though. He won't harm us if we don't let him.

When thinking of these things, we often think of it as being 'between us and satan' or between 'us and God.' Really, it's not. It's all really between God and Satan. Satan is jealous of God. Satan will NEVER overpower God, and that angers him. For this reason he starts hassling God's people instead.

It's like this - We're like God's dogs. Satan is mad at our Master. Satan isn't strong enough to kick Him though, so he kicks us, God's dogs, instead, in order to upset God, our Master.

Ugh, I don't know if I made that very clear. It was a great example when I heard it though.

I'm sorry for rambling. I'm not very good with speech. The point is, Satan comes and messes with us, but through the power of God, we have the power to overcome the devil. This may take a lot of prayer, but God always overcomes evil. It's always a good idea to call on others to pray with you.

As I posted in another topic, you can call for prayer any time, toll free, at 1-800-759-0700 I called for prayer before, and they were very nice and helpful.

[V8Tsunami]

Lately it's been a little better. I put an open bible next to my pillow, and that seemed to help things. I also pray "Lord Jesus protect me", and that seems to help a bit. Also, I go to bed earlier, and if I do wake up in the middle of the night, I wake myself up and go watch some tv for about 30 min or so until I'm comfortable. The big problem is, I rarely sleep without awakening. When I do, I worry if "that thing" will come back or not.

But this isn't the only thing I've been fighting. I'll go into more details in another thread.