Wednesday, 27 May 2009
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Have You Ever Experienced an Angelic or Demonic Presence?
My last post to be featured on Revelife was about increasing acceptance of the philosophy of materialism among Christians and the resulting lack of belief in angels, demons, and possibly other spiritual entities by some Christians. There were some comments from people who had stories about personal experiences or interactions with such beings, and we agreed that it's a fascinating topic worth discussing. So here goes.
I've had two palpable experiences with demonic presences and several experiences with angelic or divine presence. One of the two demonic experiences was as a pre-teen when I was playing with my little brother and sister (they experienced it with me and conveyed the same story to my parents without us agreeing on a story beforehand), and the other was when I was in high school after I had converted to Catholicism. It involved two of my good friends being the victims of demonic obsession. To clarify a bit for those who may not know, the general policy of the Catholic Church and its representatives is to first address the issue with rational and scientific explanations and treatments before proceeding to treat the problem as demonic in origin. After all, maybe my friends had just eaten some magical mushrooms and that would explain their extremely outlandish behavior.
One by one, all the rational and scientific explanations were ruled out, so naturally we treated it as a demonic at work at that point, responding with prayers and love and invocations of the name of Jesus. It worked. We also called in one of the few official exorcists left in the Church to check my friends out just in case.
Have you ever had a similar or very different experience with an angelic or demonic presence? Was it something you invited upon yourself or something that just happened seemingly at random?
For those of you who do firmly believe in the existence of angels and demons, do you adhere to a particular angelology or demonology? Do you only believe in those demonic and angelic beings that were specifically mentioned in the canonical scriptures (e.g. Azazel), or do you allow for the existence of others named in the Midrash or in various Gnostic texts?
photo: Lawrence OP
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About the Author
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- From: Nous_Apeiron@xanga
- Name: Sam
- About Me: I'm odd and nerdy, serious about my personal integrity and physical health, care deeply about others, enjoy writing poetry and song in particular, like to understand the world in a deeper way than most, die laughing at excellent satire, and prefer meaningful relationships. Strange, I know. In my interactions with other people, I try to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable, just like that Jesus guy people are always talking about.
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Comments (62)
I can sence when I'm arround a wiccan, but that's it
i can alwayz tell wen sumwun iz gunna witness to me & i gotta tell you that iz a freekin frightnin feelin
My guardian angel is around so much that sometimes I shamefully forget him. He has saved me from utter disaster more times than I can count. I named him Irbeel.
hi,i have gotten your friend invite.
i come from hongkong,maybe we can flow across each other.
i am glad to be your pen-pal.
What an intriguing post! I actually coach students on how to connect and communicate with angels and how to determine the difference between demonic entities and negative energy forms. Once you've experienced each form of astral energy you'll never forget it, and I take great comfort in knowing that the angels are always nearby and ready to offer protection, assistance, comfort and guidance.
This one is just begging for a Groove Coverage link. Also, a link to 2 Kings 23:5.
There's nothing wrong with believing in external agencies, so long as the solutions you find are and remain internal. We have free will, intellect, and a great many faculties. Neglecting to try these first is blasphemy.
I have definitely had many experiences with demonic presences...including them coming to me in my dreams, among other things. My guardian angels are around me all the time.
I have felt demonic presence, not too strong at all, just very lightly. I wont go into it. I used to not think too much of angels or demons. They were just whatever. Then I met a certain young man, who used by God, has on more than one occasion, cast out a demon and led people to Christ. It really shook me up the first time I heard about it!
I've had some circumstances where I had knowledge of something I had no business knowing (6-7 times now). But I honestly don't think any of those count as demonic or angelic encounters.
What were the symptoms that your friends were manifesting? How are they doing today?
I believe that there is a whole world/dimension that we can't naturally perceive.
to be able to perceive it, even for just a moment; would probably be too much for us.
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I think I have, but such are so irrational that it is difficult to prove even to oneself.
Everyday - whenever I surf the channels on the telly and the internet. My angel and devil conscience constantly battle for my attention.
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i always find it interesting that demons or angels only come into play when science can't explain an event... as though whatever actions the entities might take wouldn't demonstrate themselves in a scientific manner. demons used to create thunderstorms too... did they lose that power or something?
Yes. Unfortunately, mine are not the kind of experiences that translate very well to prose description. (They are very clear experiences, but language makes them seem limited in ways they weren't. I trust I make myself obscure?)
One thing I can say is that I have occasionally seen dramatic improvements in people's personalities and attitudes, including mine, after intercessory prayer and rebuking the Devil in Jesus' name.
As for angelology / demonology, the Bible gives several clear facts but is frustratingly short on details; so I suppose there are lots of things we don't really need to know about them.
@moritheil@xanga - Very well put. I quite agree.
@too_pretty_to_die@xanga - If it is the case that demons create thunderstorms, science would hardly explain thunderstorms in terms of demons. Whatever consistently measurable properties could be found that correlated strongly with thunderstorms would be assigned a naturalistic explanation and perhaps an abstract descriptive term. You're very right to point out that the materialistic assumptions underlying scientific explanations could lead us to conclude that nothing demonic or angelic is occurring even when it is so.
But on a practical level, such a standard is worthwhile simply because it helps eliminate the many cases in which people were not treated properly for ailments that were perfectly treatable and suffered unnecessarily as a result.
I have had overt demonic encounters, though I have yet to encounter any angelic forces in any dramatic way.
I have a had a few and most occured during times of intense spiritual warfare. I always thought it was strange when I was younger that people who had good or bad experiences were so reluctant to share.
Now that I have had my experiences with both demons and angels I understand and I rarely share them and only do so for the edification of other believers.
The good experiences are to personal to share on a blog and the demonic ones, well lets just say if someone truly has one they do not want to revisit it in their memory.
I am thankful God has not allowed me to see a demon! I have dealt with a few possesed people in my short ministry. Prayer is the key in dealing with any Demonic situation.
Yes, I have experienced a demonic presence. I was very little, maybe 6 or 7 and my 2 cousins were staying with my family and we believe that one of them could quite possibly be possessed.
One night my sister, our other cousin and I were in bed, they were asleep but I was still awake when all of a sudden I saw a tall black figure running back and forth in the room at an inhumanly speed. I started screaming at the top of my lungs and my parents came running in to the room and turned the light and it was gone.
The next night my sister decided she'd still by our closet for some reason and after they went to sleep, it happened again. But this time it was MUCH closer to my sister. The presence of it was soo overwhelming.
I think the next day was a Sunday and my parents did children's church and so they decided to do a lesson on fear and they told us to draw what we were afraid and pray about it and everyone else was drawing monsters and lightning and all that but on my paper there was only a black blob.
That night my mother told me that if I saw it again to say to it "You stay away from me! I am a child of God you cannot touch me!" and I was ready that night, I knew that God was taking care of me. After that, I never saw it again.
Doesn't demonic possession contradict free will? I mean, what's the point of having free will if some demon can just step in and wreak havoc without your permission?
Never.
Wow, I feel like a fish out of water here O.o
I've had several sightings of demons from a young age to present, but never an angel sighting, though my wife had the angelic sightings on two occasions in the last five years. In my single digits I regularly saw demons in our house moving about across the hallway. Even I began to consider whether it was my imagination until one morning I looked out the window and saw several sitting together in a neighbor's yard. They looked just like the ones in my house, plus they didn't disappear. I stood and watched them for several minutes before I became afraid they might see me and come mess with me. I quit seeing them when I asked God to make the go away.
Then, after I gave myself to the Most High in my early 20's they started appearing again, first in dreams, then in the occasional everyday event like walking the dog. Sometimes it seems they showed up to distract or persuade me away from some spiritual pursuit. Other times I believe I was allowed to see them so that we might be moved to pray for a person or group of people.
I have certainly felt the presence of God, Himself, and heard His angels singing in worship with us. Our band and congregation had some good singers in them, but not like what we were hearing when the angels joined in. Each time many had heard them singing. I would ask, "Did you notice anything unusual during the musical worship today?" to which I would get the response, "It seemed like angels were singing with us."
Anyway, as to angelology and demonology, I don't go very far in worrying about it. I know the names of those mentioned in the Bible. I know that there are many of both and that both operate in hierarchies. I know that there are twice as many angels as demons since a third of the angels followed the enemy. I know my angels have done a bang up job keeping me alive and helping me avoid temptation many, many times.
But since, like those humans who belong to YHWH, angels are His servants, too, even our co-laborers, I don't seek to know anything more about them than what the Bible and the Spirit reveal to me. I don't see the point in looking into it any further. Plus there is a warning against worshipping the angels - something that is very easy to fall into. Because of this, I get suspicious everytime I hear a "Christian" speaker talk about the angel of the revival or of any angel by name helping out in a special way for that group of people. I don't dismiss them right away if they use the name of an archangel (Gabriel, Michael or Raphael), but I start looking for other ways that person might be off center in what they teach.