Part II—Areas of Satanic Deception and Opposition

Bad habits affect people in different ways. There is the money-spending habit, in which the devil keeps even some Christian people on the run—buying, buying, buying. With some it is dresses and hats, with others it is books, furniture, or even automobiles. To save their lives, they cannot keep a penny in their pockets. They must always be getting something new. There is much of the devil in that.

I knew a woman of whom it was said that she’d had about sixteen different houses in ten years. She would buy a house, furnish it, live in it a few months, and then sell it. She was never at rest anywhere, and she never was well.

This was the work of wicked spirits. They edged their way into her life, meddled with her vitality, and then used physical weakness as the excuse for all that was happening. I tried to tell her about spirits of restlessness and infirmity, but like so many who are fond of sympathy, she preferred to nurse her weakness and keep it. Some have too much money to play with to resist the devil and get well. Having some regular duties involving hard work would cure a lot of ills and scatter a host of “infirm spirits” that imprison and weaken some people’s bodies.