Diamonds In The Rough (2008) "Demons"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
As performed by A7X

I've been thinking lots about my life and
how quick I'd wash it down the drain.
The past tense, the future, nothing matters now.
I act on my own, and I'm to blame.

Living's a wicked dream when things turn out all wrong;
we're all so weak no matter how strong, yeah.

I tried running away from me, convince me that I've grown.
But I can't change so unnaturally; demons, they follow me.
I quit running away from me, convinced that I had grown, but found out all my reasons for insanity, all a part of me.

I don't like that you're calling me a liar,
I don't like that you found out I'm a snake.
Been sneaking around for far too long now,
I don't like how fast my intentions fade.

Karma has beat me down, the worst is yet to come.
Many mistakes, and still I'm so young, yeah.

I tried running away from me, convince me that I've grown.
But I can't change so unnaturally; demons, they follow me.
I quit running away from me, convinced that I had grown, but found out all my reasons for insanity, all a part of me.

I can't count how many times...awakened in fear, nightly, palms sweating.
Dreams of promises I've made to no one but myself, I've been crushed daily.
Don't lend me your hand.
I can't trust myself, so how can you trust me?

We've all made selfish, bad decisions.
We've all tried dishing out the blame.
Convinced ourselves of our own actions,
my problem is, I'll never change.
In doubt, some good comes out.
I'll fold before it's time.
Can't promise you that it's my last time, yeah.

I tried running away from me, convince me that I've grown.
But I can't change so unnaturally; demons, they follow me.
I quit running away from me, convinced that I had grown, but found out all my reasons for insanity, all a part of me.

Truth won't help you now,
almost gone too far, oh, oh.
Truth won't help you now,
almost gone to far, oh, oh.

I'm scarred, yeah;
demons, they follow me, cause my insanity.

I'm scarred, yeah;
demons, they follow me, cause my insanity.

I'm scarred, yeah;
demons, they follow me, cause my insanity.

Demons, they follow me,
cause my insanity.

Demons, they follow me,
cause my insanity.

According to one source, this song might be "about someone's own personal demons, the worst parts of themselves. The pieces of themselves they don't like but personally he seems to think he'll never be able to change them. There are mistakes he has made and parts of himself he hates and he feels like he's always being punished for them.

"But he also feels like it is rightly deserved. He tried to ignore, hide, escape them but they resurface and he finds out he never had changed for the better like he thought. He is also upset someone else has recognized these parts of himself and is warning them about him and his flaws."

The apostle John had a lot to say about sin – the habitual practice of sin was a clear indicator that one was not walking in the light, and did not have God’s life within them.

John reminded his readers that if we say we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves. Everybody has the same condition. Sin is a condition every person was born with, an inherited nature that came from both parents’ sides, and that has been passed down to us, literally, from the very first man and woman, when they were changed by this condition through the events surrounding the Garden of Eden story in the book of Genesis.

Consequently, because sin is something that all people have, everyone has also engaged in sin, which is to fall short of God’s purity and righteousness. Sin is something that we are, that affects what we do, which is to fall short of God's standard. It’s the result of having this inherited sin nature that everyone starts out the same with.

Paul the apostle also talked about sin, indicating that
1) Sin has affected our intellectual ability “No one who understands” by blinding our eyes to what is good and right, removing our ability to understand the truth. The mind doesn’t think that cooperating with and serving God is desirable. Instead of establishing right and wrong on God’s principles, we end up talking about what works or doesn’t work for us.

2) Sin has affected our moral capability “No one who seeks God” Hungry for a personal sense of significance, we end up with self-centered motives, not God centered motives. Living for God, and living by God’s standard of righteousness, does not feel like the way to achieve a sense of personal fulfillment and satisfaction. We want to feel in control, or we want to be a winner, or we want to feel good, feel happy, or we want to feel approved of by each other; we don’t like the idea of having our sinful nature exposed. Feeling right is what a person wants more than being right with God.

3) Sin has affected our wills “No one who does good” It’s not as though people can’t choose God. People can. But sin has so affected our mind and motives that we find we don’t want to choose God.

Paul showed that all the law really does is make you and me conscious of our sin. Since sin doesn’t affect us from the outside, but from the inside, trying to get God’s law to change us from the outside isn’t going to work (so rule following is a dead end). There can be no peace when even some small part of sin remains, hostile towards God. That’s why God said He would circumcise hearts, back in the Old Testament, in one of the books Moses wrote – real change can only come from the inside out, when deep seated hostility towards God’s righteousness, and God Himself, is removed.

Understanding all this makes it possible to understand the absolute necessity for God’s grace in order to live. As the poet pointed out, on his own he simply is incapable of changing himself. You and I need God to totally transform us by –
• Infusing us with His nature, His righteousness, His holiness,
• Causing our morality to become pure,
• Our thoughts to become anchored in the truth,
• Our emotions to begin rejoicing and loving God as well as each other in every situation in life,
• Our wills to cooperate joyfully to the rightness of God’s will

Once you know about the nature of sin, and how to be made entirely new it really would be insanity to not welcome - to not embrace - changing

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Satan/the devil and demons...and what to do about it

The apostle Paul ends Ephesians with the assurance that, in God’s mighty power, Satan’s schemes can be successfully withstood.

It is a fact that an angel named Lucifer was accompanied by a large angelic force in a rebellion against God. Isaiah 14 describes the thoughts that went on in Lucifer’s mind, “I will make myself like the Most High.” He was the most powerful, the most beautiful, of all the angels, his name meant “light-bearer,” “shining one,” “Son of the Dawn,” so he aspired to be like God. Not in God’s love or grace, not in God’s wisdom and mercy, but but by possessing all of heaven and all of earth. He wanted to rule it, he wanted to take over the universe.

God cast him out of heaven; Jesus said He saw Satan, which means “adversary,” fall like lightening from heaven. He is called the prince of darkness, the father of lies, the accuser, the beguiling serpent, a murderer. The Bible describes him as a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. He is fierce, powerful, evil and all the more dangerous because he is a spiritual being, you and I can’t see him. From the beginning Satan has been only for himself, he owns the world and receives worship from it, leading the whole world into sin and corruption, using the world to oppose God.

A third of God’s angels, now called demons, fell with him and have made this earth their dark world. Satan continues his rebellion against God, seeking in every way to usurp God’s position as king. As soon as he had successfully enticed the first man and woman to disobey God, he took ownership of the world and now receives worship from it. The Bible talks about demons with the primary purpose of possessing humans. Jesus acknowledged that the world, that people themselves, are occupied by a strong man who possesses them. Satan’s rod is death, and he leads the whole world into sin and corruption, using the world to oppose God.

Satan opposes God’s work by imitating it, and in this way minimizes the power and glory of God in people’s view.

Satan is a counterfeiter who has an imitation gospel that exalts people instead of God; a counterfeit righteousness that calls evil good, and good evil (check out Romans 1 on that), and counterfeit minsters for his counterfeit religions. In fact, Satan is one day going to produce a counterfeit Messiah who will deceive the whole world into thinking that he’s their savior, because he’s going to work miracles, and perform signs and wonders.

Paul pointed out that even though the pagan gods the idols represented didn’t actually exist, demons do exist, and they were behind all the pagan worship practices. If we are to take Paul at his word (and since it is scripture, at this point, taking him at his word would be taking God's word) then people who involved themselves then, and to this day, with false religion are really worshiping demons and are operating under demonic direction.

The New Testament describes demons as causing a physical or mental ailment such as blindness or self-torture. They have supernatural knowledge, superior strength and an ability to foretell the future. In the New Testament, they recognized Christ as the Holy One of God, and were afraid of Jesus, they had to obey His authority.

From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus was driving out demons from demon-possessed and demon-oppressed people. In Matthew 9:34 the Pharisees had begun dismissing this by saying that Jesus had been driving out demons by the permission, or power, or both of the prince of demons. Now Jesus met their accusations head on.

Both the Pharisees and Jesus acknowledged that Satan was a real person, the prince of demons whom they referred to as Beelzebub, which meant “lord of the flies” in Hebrew, and was meant as a mockery of the actual title “Prince Baal.”

It’s not enough to drive Satan out. Jesus said there must be someone who replaces him as the owner of the home, as the possessor of the person, otherwise Satan will just move right back in again, and matters will be even worse. The new owner has to be stronger than Satan. The new owner is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. Demons are real and powerful, although they can’t possess a Christian because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Still, Christians can be harassed, tempted, accused, be oppressed by and fall under the sway of demons.

Spiritual warfare is very real, human beings are the battle ground, and a number of you are experiencing it right now. Satan is completely opposed to everything of God, and he knows his time is limited, he’s read the same book you and I read. God created hell to contain Satan and demons at the end of time, and it is Satan’s goal to take as many people with him as he can. When you and I were born again, we became sworn enemies of Satan and his hordes. He can’t control you and me, but he will do everything in his power to neutralize us. Satan is particularly interested in destroying all that belongs to Jesus. If you are doing something for Jesus, in His name, then Satan will oppose you.

Because you and I are on the front lines of God’s great rescue plan, you and I are also in the cross hairs of Satan and his demons. Watch out for spiritual opposition, disguised as bad luck, unfortunate coincidence, crazy unexpected stuff and so on.

1) He will find your soft places, where you are weak, and tempt you into sin
2) He will find your unguarded places, where you consider yourself strong, and tempt you to sin
3) He will accuse you when you do sin, convincing you that your ineffective, a hopeless case, not worth redeeming
4) He will deceive you into believing his words instead of God’s words
5) He will deceive you by speaking in voices other than his own, often using the sound of your own voice
6) He will attack you on unexpected sides
7) Satan’s attacks are just as often physical, since the spiritual and physical realms constantly intersect – sickness, calamities, fights between people who love each other, flat tires

Yet although Satan is a formidable enemy, he is not invincible, he is a created being with a creature’s attributes. He is not omnipotent, as God is. He can’t do everything; in fact he can only do what God will permit. He is not omnipresent; he can’t be everywhere, tempting everyone at once, although he roams the earth and a third of God’s angels have joined forces with him. He can only tempt one person at a time. Above all, he is not omniscient; he only knows what God lets him know. He can insert thoughts in your mind, but he can’t read your mind. If you want him to know what you’re thinking, you’ll have to say it out loud. Satan is loose, but limited, and he is a defeated foe. Jesus has already triumphed over him at the cross.

But how can you and I stand firm against an enemy like Satan, even if he is defeated? After all, he’s out on parole. The Bible says “Submit yourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.” But sometimes a person tries to resist evil without first submitting to God, and Satan pays no attention to that. Only God has the power and the authority to hold Satan back.

Our struggle is against the spiritual forces of evil, that’s why prayer is the most powerful weapon, it’s spiritual. And you and I, those who have been born again, are the only ones who can successfully withstand this powerful enemy, because we are the only ones who can put on the armor of God. You and I have to first be in prayer, and be connected closely to God through His word before we are able to withstand the temptations, doubts and fears that Satan can inspire in us.

Just as Moses prayed for God’s power to intervene, so you and I can go every time to God for His power, and He will give it. Your most potent weapon is the truth, God’s word, know it and have it in your mind. Your protection is Jesus’ life within you, His righteousness, and your radio is prayer.

What part of you has been left uncovered recently? Which piece of armor do you need to become more familiar with? Paul finishes this letter with peace, love with faith from God, and grace to all who love Jesus. Along with knowing and applying God’s word, along with fervent prayer, add encouragement to your armor – who do you need to encourage today in the Lord so they can withstand evil?

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