Exorcism - A Christian Manual (15 page)

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If the problem is not caused by a demon then the prayer will not work.  Usually the reckless person will blame the client for a hidden sin and make matters worse.

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If the person is possessed a full exorcism may start where they are at, and this could be a business, the mall, or the post office.  This may cause a scene that draws attention to the client, which can humiliate them.  This is not what God wants.

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Usually the reckless minister is operating outside the will of God and doesn’t have the power to back up their prayers.  They will start exorcisms but will not complete them.  One woman started an exorcism on a teenager by herself in the home of a friend.  After an hour she just quit and said that God had done His work and the girl would get better soon.  Well, it wasn’t over and the girl was left lying on the floor with the demons inside and they were mocking and laughing at the reckless minister.  The woman just quit because she could not get the demons out so she claimed that they had to come out eventually because she commanded it.  The girl was in a trance state for a day, when a friend stopped by her house and found the girl and brought her to the church.

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They will try an exorcism prayer on someone that is not ready, and if the demons leave they will come back with more powerful demons and make the person’s condition worse.  The reckless person doesn’t know the Scriptures well enough to know that the demons will come back, or may not even care.  They don’t care if the person needs preparation time, inner healing, or extensive follow-up; all they care about is getting rid of demons.

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Reckless ministers believe that they have the power and that demons are afraid of them! They rarely see their own mistakes and if something doesn’t go right they blame everyone else.  They believe that they are God’s instrument for setting people free, but they literally leave a trail of destruction wherever they go.

Poor Prayer Life

There is a lot of prayer time that goes into exorcisms. We pray about:

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Whether a person needs an exorcism;

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The order of ministry: what should come first, inner healing, physical healing or an exorcism?

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The timing of the exorcism;

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The people that should be involved in the exorcism;

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The number and types of demons in the person;

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The order of attack in the exorcism;

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The exorcism itself is one long continuous prayer.  So it is easy to see that if a person does not have an active prayer life they should not be in the exorcism ministry.  The exorcist should do nothing without prayer.

Immature

The exorcism ministry needs mature people…”Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything,” (James 1:4).  This does not mean that you can only minister if you are perfect because nobody can be perfect.  What is needed are people that do not have major inner healing issues, have adequate Bible training, and are not new to the faith.  I believe that you must be an adult that has been a committed Christian for at least 5 years or more, to be admitted into training.  People that do not work well in the exorcism ministry have the following characteristics:

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They gossip about clients and break confidentiality;

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They have a pattern of quitting ministries when things get tough;

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They fight for attention and power in a ministry;

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They are unable to accept correction;

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They are jealous of the success of others and sabotage the success of other ministry members;

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They get offended easily and hold grudges for long periods of time;

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They look down on clients and judge them;

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They easily lose control of their emotions.

CHAPTER 7

House Cleansings

Demons can inhabit objects and homes.  There are demons that are assigned to dwell over territories and they remain in these territories until they are cast out.  We have already seen this in Daniel 10: 12-13…”Then he continued, ‘Do not be afraid, Daniel.  Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.  But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days.  Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.”  Here, there is a demon over an entire region (Persia) that fought the angel of the Lord.  He had come with an answer to Daniel’s prayer but was immediately attacked by the demon principalities.

Angels are also placed strategically on the earth.  Currently there are 4 angels who are at the river Euphrates and they are to be released during the tribulation to kill a third of mankind (Revelation 9: 14-15).  Also angels are in battle with the principalities in the heavens even in the book of Revelation at the end of all things…”And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels fought back,” (Revelation 12: 7). 

So, there are angels and demons all around us.  Demons stay in the territories they have been assigned, and this can be a house, a neighborhood, a town, a state, or a nation.  Usually, the more powerful the demon is, the bigger the real estate that it rules.  So what most describe as ghosts haunting a house or territory, they are really demons that continue to inhabit the area in which they were assigned.

Many believe that ghosts are humans that have died suddenly or violently and are in extreme emotional pain and cannot move on to heaven or hell.  They are trapped in a horrible moment (Helzer, 2002).  Ogden (2004) believes that ghosts are humans that are seeking revenge for past crimes (haunting others), are watching their loved ones, or are trying tie up unfinished business because they died too soon.  Some believe that ghosts don’t even know they are dead and they are trapped in a time warp. 

None of these theories of ghosts are true.  Ghosts are nothing but demons-they are not trapped humans.  There are several things that prove this:

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Jesus has conquered death and He has the keys of death…”I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!  And I hold the keys of death and Hades,” (Rev. 1:18).

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When we die we go immediately before the throne of God.  When the man next to Jesus on the cross asked Jesus to remember him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise,” (Luke 23:43; italics mine).  There are other Scriptures that support the fact that we go to God immediately when we die (see 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:21-23; Rev. 6:9-11).

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If ghosts are trapped humans then Jesus has no power to bring them to heaven and has no authority over death.  Since Jesus does have this power over death He would not leave humans in this trapped, useless state.  When we die our deeds are done and then we are judged.  There is no reason to hang around as it will not change the verdict of God.  To say that ghosts are human is inconsistent with many Scriptures and simply cannot be true.

When people talk about haunted houses they usually are speaking of ghosts inhabiting a house.  Some believe that ghosts can be friendly and others believe that they can be malevolent.  There are a few that believe that they can be demons, but they are not in the majority.  In reality, ghosts are demons that guard a territory. 

Demons can also enter objects as well as homes, and this can be seen in Deut. 7:25-26…”The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the Lord your God.  Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction.  Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.”

This Scripture reveals that we should not bring anything into the house that is devoted too or symbolizes another religion.  But, there are subtle items that have been prayed over and cursed by witches that you would not recognize as occult influenced.  There was one witch that painted beautiful paintings but then cursed them and cast spells over them so that the buyers would become sick or tormented by the demons bound too them. 

A friend of mine bought his wife a diamond ring.  He surprised her with it on her anniversary and she fell in love with it.  However, she started getting sick soon after and was in and out of the hospital, though the doctors could find nothing wrong with her.  He called and asked for me to come to the house and pray for her.  He told me nothing about the ring because he didn’t connect it to her illness.  As I was praying for her I sensed evil around her but was unsure why.  I asked him if he had done anything different right before she got sick and they only thing he could think of was the ring.  I asked her for it and when it touched my hand I felt sick to my stomach.  I told him that this object was cursed and that he needed to get rid out it.  They both agreed, so we prayed over it and threw it away.  As soon as we did his wife immediately felt something lift off of her and her sicknesses stopped.

The objects really are nothing but wood, metal, and stone, but it is the prayer that releases the demon into the object that allows it to dwell there…”Do I mean that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything? No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s Table and the table of demons,” (1 Cor. 10:19-21).

Assessment

First, you must go to the house and get a history of it.  Some houses are very old so you may not know everything about them, but it is important to gather as much data as you can.  It is good to know who owned the land and built the house.  For example, many state and government buildings have a cornerstone that is dedicated to the Masonic Lodge cult, but few are aware of this fact.  The owner may have dedicated the land to any spirit, and since most people do not consider house cleansings, the demons will remain until forced out.  Ask the family what is going on that is causing them concern.  When demons are present they usually have several different strategies:

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The spirit will be mischievous and will seek to frighten the residents out of the house
.  They can move furniture, turn lights on and off, scream, throw dishes, and slam doors.

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The spirit will be malevolent
. In many cases it is tied to occult activity.  It will be cold and the residents will feel an angry presence.  It will seek to harm the residents and keep them in a state of fear.  They may trip people going downstairs and throw objects at them.  Some have reported blood going down the walls and fire bursting out of a fireplace.  In extreme cases they will inhabit furniture and the furniture will walk around or you will see the demon’s face in the wood.

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The spirit will befriend the residents, usually the children
.  They will not have a cold, angry presence.  Some will act as a protector and do good deeds, like helping a child about ready to fall off a stool.  They act friendly so that the family will feel comfortable around them and allow them to stay.  Some residents will actually say that they enjoy having spirits in their house.  However, these demons will secretly cause other problems because they have the authority to stay.  They will encourage marital discord, sexual infidelity, and violence.  But they work through the human so that the human is blamed, not the spirit.  In some cases the spirits will appear in human form and befriend children.  They will give information to help the child, like what to study for on a test, and who to trust at school. They will get the child to trust them more and more until the child completely depends on it.

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Demons can also possess animals as well
…”A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and He gave them permission.  When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned,” (Luke 8:32-33).  Animals can be attacked by demons to make them suffer or cause them to misbehave.  They can also be visited with sickness to bring sorrow to the family. 

After talking to the residents you should walk through the house in every room and ask God what is there.  God will usually give me pictures of how the spirit got there. I may see people doing a séance or someone committing murder.  It is good to have people with you with different spiritual gifts.  Those that have the work of knowledge can see into the past, those with the word of wisdom can see into the future, and those with discernment of spirits can tell whether demons are present (1 Cor. 12:8-10).   The most common way that to detect demons is feeling their presence in your spirit.   Once we know that evil is there we can then ask God to clarify what type of demon is there and how it got there.