13. Even though you are bad, you know how to give good things to your children. So surely your heavenly Father knows how to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”
14. One time Jesus was sending a demon out of a man who could not talk. When the demon came out, the man was able to speak. The people were amazed.
15. But some of them said, “Jesus uses the power of Beelzebul to force demons out of people. Beelzebul is the ruler of demons.”
16. Other people wanted to test Jesus. They asked him to give them a sign from heaven.
17. But Jesus knew what they were thinking. So he said to them, “Every kingdom that is divided and fights against itself will be destroyed. And a family that fights against itself will break apart.
18. So if Satan is fighting against himself, then how will his kingdom last? You say that I use the power of Beelzebul to force out demons.
19. But if I use the power of Beelzebul to force out demons, then by what power do your people force out demons? So your own people prove that you are wrong.
20. But if I use the power of God to force out demons, the kingdom of God has come to you!
21. “When a strong man with many weapons guards his own house, then the things in his house are safe.
22. But suppose a stronger man comes and defeats him. The stronger man will take away the weapons that the first man trusted to keep his house safe. Then the stronger man will do what he wants with the first man’s things.
23. “If anyone is not with me, he is against me. He who does not work with me is working against me.
24. “When an evil spirit comes out of a person, it travels through dry places, looking for a place to rest. But that spirit finds no place to rest. So it says, ‘I will go back to the home I left.’
25. When the spirit comes back to that person, it finds that home swept clean and made neat.
26. Then the evil spirit goes out and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself. Then all the evil spirits go into that person and live there. And he has even more trouble than he had before.”