The things demons do

John writes that the devil has sinned from the beginning (1 John 3:8). This cannot mean from the beginning of creation as at the end of Genesis 1 God surveys all that he has created and declares that it was very good, now can it mean from his creation as he was created as a good angel. Yet from the beginning parts of history, and his encounter with humanity in Eden, the devil has sought to tempt people and cause them to sin.

Likewise the devil sought to cause Jesus to sin and so fail in his mission as Messiah. The tactics of Satan and his demons are to use lies (John 8:44), deception (Rev. 12:9), murder (Ps. 106:37' John 8:44), and every other kind of destructive activity in their attempt to cause people to turn away from God and destroy themselves. Demons seek to blind people to the gospel (2 Cor. 4:4) and keep them in bondage to things that hinder them from coming to God (Gal. 4:8). 'They will also try to use temptation, doubt, fear, confusion, sickness, envy, pride, slander, or any other means possible to hinder a Christian's witness and usefulness' (Grudem).

Yet demons are limited in their power and are subject to the ultimate restraint of God. We see in the story of Job that Satan could only do the things that God gave him permission to do and nothing more. demons are kept 'in chains' (Jude 6) and can be successfully resisted by Christians through the authority Christ gives us (James 4:7).

As angels do not have infinite power neither do demons. Indeed we might assume that demons are weaker than angels because of the destructive power of sin on them. Grudem suggests that demons can not know the future, read our minds or know our thoughts.

In many places in the Old Testament God shows himself to be the true God, and so distinct from false (demonic gods) of the nations, by the fact that he alone knows the future (Is. 46:9-10). Daniel tells King Nebuchadnezzar that no one speaking by any other power than that of the God of heaven could tell him what he had dreamed (Daniel 2:27-28). The Old Testament says that demons were behind the false idols that people worshiped in the nations that surrounded God's people (Psalm 106:35-37).