Sin caused the first suffering and death in humanity (Genesis 2:27), though the glory of God — not sin — may be the reason why God allows some to suffer, as demonstrated by the blind man healed by Jesus (John 9:2-3). Physical affliction can also be the result of demonic oppression, which will require demons to be cast out, such as the apparently epileptic boy healed by Jesus (Mark 9:14-29). “Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose” (Mark 9:25-27 KJV). Whether the weighty theological terminology of ‘demon possession’ or ‘demon oppression’ is used, matters not. When by “prayer and fasting” (9:29) the influence of an evil spirit is cast out of an individual — verbally, so even the devil can hear the command — it must be replaced by the filling of God’s Spirit of Love, or face the danger of becoming only worse than before. “Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation” (Matthew 12:45). LORD, may we wisely learn to cast out demons to build Your kingdom, and may Your Spirit be put in their place, for love “shall cover the multitude of sins” (1Peter 4:8). Return quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen and amen. 

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