Therefore, the most important thing for the believer to do now is examine where these excuses come from. Evil spirits are well able to make man think that their works are caused by something natural. They often make the believer think that he himself has some faults. In this way, their works are covered up and left undiscovered; therefore, they are not eliminated. Whenever the believer's mind has some excusing thoughts, he must examine all the reasonings. The believer must trace the source and examine the cause of the present condition of his mind. Otherwise, if he misinterprets—mistaking the supernatural for the natural—evil spirits will gain much more ground. All the opinions that he has toward his own condition must be confirmed. Otherwise, before he can regain his former ground, new ground will have already been given to evil spirits. If there are times when he cannot think, he must ask why. If there are times when he is full of thoughts, he also must ask why.

What must be guarded against the most is the evil spirits' utilizing a believer to work for them in order to protect their work in him! This is possible because some believers have been worked on by evil spirits for quite some time. A believer often helps the evil spirits to cover up the reason for his being attacked; he does not let the reason manifest itself or prove that it is the work of evil spirits! In this way, he becomes an accomplice of evil spirits and helps preserve their ground—even when he himself knows that he is being troubled.

At such times evil spirits will cause the believer's flesh to join them in their work. (Indeed, the flesh is always the co-worker of the devil!) They will cause the believer to think that he can prevent his mind from being occupied by the devil. The believer does this to save face or as a result of some other reasons. A reluctance to examine and a complacency and refusal to relinquish one's "spiritual" experience is a big obstacle to deliverance. The believer may say, "I do not need deliverance; therefore, I do not want to be delivered. Through Christ, I am already victorious; He has already overcome Satan; therefore, now I can ignore Satan. Let God deal with him. I will just pay attention to Christ. I do not want to know anything about Satan! We just preach the gospel; there is no need to be bothered about Satan!" There are other similar words which this kind of person will say. Perhaps, he will even speak to the one who told him this truth, saying, "If that is the case, resist for me and pray for me." This kind of word may not be an insincere request, but even if it is sincere, he is trying to ease himself and let others do the work of deliverance for him. He should know that he dislikes hearing about the devil and his work because the devil's work is already in his mind. He is afraid that once discovered, he will need to make an effort to deal with it. Is it really true that he already knows everything about the devil and that he no longer needs to know it? The gospel not only saves men and delivers them from sin, it also delivers them from Satan. When we preach the gospel, why should we not mention the devil? Is this not the same as those who have committed certain sins, and who are afraid when others mention the same sin? Such a person has been occupied by the devil and is afraid when others mention the devil. To an ordinary person, this kind of discussion is meaningless. But to the one whose mind is occupied by the devil, there are ample reasons for being afraid. Actually, when a believer says these words, in the depth of his heart, he is afraid that his real condition will be exposed. If he is truly occupied by the devil, he will not know what to do; therefore, he says these kinds of words. He wants to conceal himself in order to console himself.