Intro to Chapter 22: Demon Possession
When a demon enters a person’s body, it seems to do so through the central nervous system. In control of that, the demon can control the person’s movements, what he says, what he sees and hears — even, perhaps, the images in his mind. It is precisely because the nervous system is the point of attack that the symptoms of demonic possession sometimes parallel those of various nervous diseases.
Sometimes Jesus treated physical ailments — deafness and dumbness, seizures — as physical ailments only, and sometimes as cases of demonic possession. We could be mistaken; he could not. And he no more called on God to cast out demons than he did to heal the sick. He spoke, and they obeyed. Jesus’ commands were an irresistible force.
There were limits to his power, however self-imposed. Demons could not resist his most casual word. People could. When Jesus said, “Follow me,” he exerted no doubt a great power of attraction. That power, though, could be resisted. The Bible records one instance in which it was.