It is very pitiful that believers do not know the fundamental difference between the work of evil spirits and the work of the Holy Spirit. Without realizing it, they have allowed evil spirits to come in and occupy their minds. Now we want to briefly see a mind that is under the attack of evil spirits.
When a believer's mind falls into passivity, many thoughts will be injected into him from outside. There will be unclean thoughts, blasphemous thoughts, and confused thoughts. They will come wave after wave through the brain. Although a person may make up his mind to reject them, he finds that he cannot stop the thoughts, nor can he change the direction and subject of his thoughts. The mind seems to be like a machine; once the switch is turned on, the machine cannot easily be stopped. The believer may use his will to oppose them, but still find that he cannot rid himself of the thoughts he does not want. Thoughts that come contrary to the believer's will are from evil spirits.
Sometimes a sudden flash of thought comes into a believer's mind and causes him to understand, know, or invent some special thing. It may suggest that he do this or that. This sudden thought seems to come from the believer himself, but on examining it, he will find that it does not originate from himself. Hence, this is also a work of evil spirits in a passive mind. A believer should reject sudden thoughts that suggest certain actions. These are not coming from the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, if the believer acts according to these thoughts, he will see how senseless the result will be.
We know that in this last age, evil spirits are doing a considerable work of teaching (1 Tim. 4:1). The believers should be on the alert so that evil spirits do not give them these teachings in their passive mind. Many believers think that they themselves are studying the Word, that they themselves are receiving much new light, and that they themselves are understanding many things that men of former times did not understand. But these believers should be careful because in many cases it is not they who are thinking, but evil spirits who suddenly have given them these thoughts. Evil spirits may cunningly wedge into the believers' thoughts one thought of their own. Since many believers are ignorant of the fact that their mind can take in the teaching of evil spirits, they read and meditate in their study and receive a great deal of sudden enlightenment when they are by themselves. They consider that they have invented something new in the divine teachings and write down these sudden thoughts or publish them, thinking that these are the result of their research. When others read about them or listen to them, they marvel at their superior intelligence. Actually, we do not know how many teachings have their source in the bottomless pit. Many heresies, "spiritual teachings," and interpretations of the Bible, which divide the church of Christ into pieces, come from men who suddenly understand certain doctrines in their studies. We should not merely consider how excellent the enlightenment we have received is. Instead we should ask, "From where do I get such enlightenment?" (1) Is it revealed by the Holy Spirit through the intuition? (2) Is it from my own mind? (3) Or are evil spirits giving these thoughts to me?
When a believer's mind is passive, evil spirits are most likely to inject all kinds of nonsensical thoughts into him. They will tell him, "You are God's special vessel...your work will shake the whole world...your spiritual life is much higher and deeper than others...you should go another way...soon God will open a wide preaching door for you...you should come out to live by faith...your spiritual usefulness is really limitless." Thus, the believer is disarmed of all his weapons of watchfulness, and he lives by these thoughts all the day long, dreaming at every moment about how great, wonderful, and capable he is. Because he does not use the reasoning and the mind, he does not know how these thoughts damage the spiritual life and how ridiculous they are. He sets his mind on himself continuously and fantasizes what his future will be.
Among those who preach the Lord's Word, some are frequently controlled by sudden thoughts. Many preachers preach the "sudden revelations" that have passed through their minds. When they speak, they either do so in obedience to those sudden thoughts, or they follow the "revelation" which has been in their minds for a long time. They consider these to be from God, and they receive them passively. Little do they know that God does not give revelations suddenly, nor does He give revelations to the mind. Although sometimes such words can be very meaningful, they are nevertheless from evil spirits. Sometimes when a believer preaches, many verses suddenly pour into his mind. His mind does not initiate it, but the verses keep coming. The audience is touched. However, when the meeting is over, the audience wakes up as if from a dream and finds that they have not received any practical help in life. Such an outpouring of the Scriptures sometimes happens in one's private time also. But this also is a work of evil spirits.
Since the believer has reserved some ground in his mind for evil spirits, they can give him any thoughts they wish. Very frequently, among believers who work together, evil spirits implant, without any ground, a suspicion or a barrier between them, making them separate from one another. Evil spirits make the believer think, without any reason, that this man is this way, and that man is that way. He thinks that this man treats him probably this way, and that man treats him probably that way. Therefore, the evil spirits divide the believers. Actually these thoughts are groundless. If the believer knows to resist them and check the source of these thoughts, there will not be so many divisions. But the believer still thinks that it is his own thinking and does not know that evil spirits are also able to put thoughts into his mind.