In the 20-plus years he has known Christ, Brady Boyd has never been to a megachurch where demonic spirits was discussed.
Boyd, who is currently senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, considers it a "big, big, big" topic that needs to be talked about.
He is now 10 weeks into a sermon series on the supernatural. He has already addressed healing, miracles and the gift of prophecy. "Distinguishing Between Spirits" was his message title for this past Sunday.
"Do demons really exist?" Boyd, who replaced former pastor Ted Haggard in 2007, posed to thousands of attendees.
"I don't want to assume in this building today that all of you even believe that there are demons. I would guess there are some of you out here that may have never heard anyone talk about this and you may not even believe that there are spiritual forces of evil that wish you harm," he said.
For Boyd, the existence of demons is very real. He recalled a time when his young son, Abram, had "intense night terrors" (nightmares). They kept Abraham and Boyd up at night regularly. After recognising that there was "a spiritual element attacking" his son, Boyd prayed a "short, emphatic, decisive prayer" calling on the name of Jesus. The "night terrors" stopped, he said.
It all started with an awareness of something that was not holy.
"I'm convinced ... that all of us, no matter how long we've been Christ followers, are open to being deceived and influenced by the enemy," he stated.
The problem with many believers, however, is that they are deceived or influenced by evil spirits without even knowing it, whether it is through a TV show or a relationship, the senior pastor noted. People are led astray from the truth subtly, in small incremental steps and eventually they wake up and ask themselves "how did I get here?"
"The enemy's tricky," the Louisiana native underlined. "He's good at this."
