Chapter Fourteen
Knowing Our Enemy
Paul said that he didn’t shadow box or box against the wind. (I Corinthians 9:26) We know the story of little Peter who cried “Wolf!” and all the men of the town would come out prepared to fight the wolf. After he cried “Wolf!” so many times, the men no longer heeded his cry. When the wolf really did come, Peter and his sheep were all damaged or killed because there was a real wolf. There is a real enemy we have to fight against, and we do have to prepare ourselves to fight.
The first thing we need to recognize is that there is a devil called Satan. Most of the time, we don’t actually fight against the devil himself. He is the commander and chief, and we are fighting against his soldiers, who are called demons.
Occasionally, we need to fight against natural forces in the world when these natural forces are under demonic control. The classic example of the authority of the Spirit exercised through a believer would be when Pat Robertson saw a hurricane coming in from the ocean headed right toward his Christian television station in Virginia Beach. Standing on the sands of the Atlantic Coast, he pointed his finger toward the ocean and commanded the hurricane to be turned back. The hurricane immediately turned eastward into the ocean instead of coming to the land!
Many times, we have to fight against disease. Disease may be a natural force, but it may be under demonic control. God has placed everything in the universe for a purpose. After He created the universe, He said, It is good. (Genesis 1:25) He created bacteria and called them good. It was only after the devil got hold of the bacteria that they became dangerous, malignant, and detrimental to our lives. Disease is a destructive force of an enemy’s power against us, and we have to do spiritual warfare against it.
There are some people who are under demonic control. Sometimes we have to literally fight against such a person. When a person is working under demonic control, that person has to be stopped. Sometimes those persons are in political situations. As long as these leaders are willingly receptive to demon influence, these evil spirits inside them will continue to work through these human leaders. In this case, we have to physically fight against these men. Although we know that we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, if these individuals desire that demonic power inside themselves, we must not only resist the spirit but also wage spiritual warfare toward that individual. Adolph Hitler would be one example of a person who was under demonic influence. There had to be spiritual warfare as well as physical warfare zeroed in on him, not just against a nebulous demon force.
Another area where we need to fight the enemy is in our thought realm. One of the major keys to being an overcoming Christian is the renewing of the mind. We are new creatures with a totally new mindset from what we had before. In II Corinthians 10:4-5, Paul tells us that we have to bring every thought into captivity and make every thought obedient to Christ. There are many thoughts that try to exalt themselves against the knowledge of Christ; such thoughts have to be removed. In John 8:44, Jesus tells us that the devil is a liar and the father of all lies. We have to recognize when he is speaking, know what thoughts he is giving us, realize that they are lies, and remove them.
I guess you would have to say that I’m a bit sassy, but sometimes I find that being a bit “over the edge” helps get the point across. When I was working as a prayer counselor at the altar after a Sunday morning service, a lady came up with a need. “All week, the devil’s been telling me that I have cancer.” I nodded and said, “So, what’s your prayer request?” She then repeated the same statement, “All week, the devil’s been telling me that I have cancer.” Again, I nodded politely and repeated my question, “So, what’s your prayer request?” Again, she repeated the same statement, and again I posed the same question. This volley went on for a couple more rounds until she became observably agitated. Finally, I interrupted the routine with, “You don’t have a problem with cancer; you have a problem with listening to the devil.” (As harassing as I might have been, at least, I didn’t tell her what I was tempted to say, “You don’t have a problem with cancer; you have a problem with stupidity.”) I then reminded her from John 8:44 that the devil is a liar and that there is no truth in him. I surmised that since the devil was telling her that she had cancer, the only logical scriptural conclusion would be that she doesn’t! Wow! How liberating to understand that the only real power the devil has is to deceive us into believing that he actually has power to harm us!
Chapter Fifteen
Picking Our Battleground
Warfare assumes that there is a battleground. There is a place where the two opposing forces lock in on one another. For every war, there is a battlefield on which it must be fought. In I Thessalonians 2:18, Paul says to us, Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us. There was a battleground that Paul had to go through before he was able to get to Thessalonica. There is an arena for our struggles against Satan. Either he calls it, or we call it. In the story of Joshua as he went into the Promised Land, he was the one who chose where the battle was to be arrayed. He was always careful except in one situation. In the battle of Ai (Joshua chapters seven and eight), he went out to fight at the city itself, and he wound up having to flee. The next time, he chose the battlefield at God’s direction. Pretending to flee, he ran away from the city, drawing their army into the open plain away from the city where his ambushing forces attacked. When he chose the battlefield, he won triumphantly.
In sports, there is a “home court advantage.” On our home court, we have first-hand experience of trying to score a point from any given spot – having scored from that spot in practice, we feel confident that we can also score in the real game. When we play on our home court, we also have the advantage of knowing that our fans are going to be in the stands, rooting us on.
We have to know that somebody is going to call where this battle is going to be fought, and it is better for us to be the determinants instead of letting the devil draw us to his territory. Choose the place in your life where you wish to draw the line in the sand; don’t wait until the devil gets the advantage and then try to fight him on his battlefield.
There is one thing that we need to see about Paul. At his trial in Caesarea, his accusers came from Jerusalem to try to have him extradited back to the city to be tried, but Paul refused to go back to Jerusalem. He had a divine mandate to go to Rome, and he knew that if he went back to Jerusalem, he would be ambushed on the way or die in Jerusalem. Choosing his battlefield, he appealed to Caesar. (Acts 25:9-12) In II Corinthians 11:23‑28, Paul gives us a list of the things that had come against him. He was on the battlefield when he was on a ship. He was on the battlefield when he was traveling. He was on the battlefield when he was thrown into prison. He was confronted every step of the way – whether it was on the ship or in prison or whether he was among his churchmen, countrymen, or aliens – but he always knew how to push the battle into an arena where he knew he had an advantage. Every one of these battlefields occurred when he was attacking the devil’s kingdom, not when he was defending himself against the aggressions of the enemy. He kept the devil so busy defending himself that Satan never had a chance to choose the battlefield. He had to meet Paul where he was on his assault into the devil’s territory. There is a battlefield, and we have to be the ones to decide where the battle lines are going to be drawn. We must pick an arena where we can fight aggressively, not defensively. We must do the same for our families, our ministries, our careers – everything that is valuable to us.
Many times, battle lines are drawn in our finances, and we have to determine that we are in control of the battlefield. I would prefer that my battle in finances be in how much I’m giving away rather than having enough to meet my needs. Some people are always struggling with paying their bills and keeping their set lifestyle. But we can draw the battlefield away from the area of getting enough to make the mortgage into the area of giving. If by faith we can pledge a gift to the work of God or desire to raise our giving above the simple tithe, the battle is on the grounds of giving rather than receiving. We know how to draw the devil out of his field and onto our court.
Many times, the battle is drawn in the area of our health. We have to draw the devil out of the area of sickness and disease and simply stand for our health. It is always more of an adventure for the battle to be in the area of believing God to heal others, rather than fighting the devil to keep ourselves from dying. If we start to feel sick, we should find someone who is sick and pray for him. If we take that aggressive step of moving out of having our own needs met to blessing others, it draws the attack out of the enemy’s battlefield and into another battlefield where we are on the offensive rather than the defensive.
Sometimes, our spiritual growth, prayer life, and Bible reading time become the battlefield. When we determine that we are going to read the Bible, the devil determines that we are going to fall asleep. We could read the entire newspaper from cover to cover and not doze off, but, if we sit down and read the Bible, we start getting drowsy. That’s because the devil has drawn us into battle. We have to push beyond that. The devil wants to call us into battle over the area of our spiritual growth and our prayer life. But we must resist him and push ourselves beyond that.
Many times, the battlefield is drawn in the area of our family. Sometimes, the devil will want our sanity to be the battleground. Sometimes, the arena of battle may be concerning our joy, our peace, or our living beyond worry and anxiousness. Our vision and our direction may be a realm of the battlefield. Sometimes, our mission, organization, and discipline are areas of our battlefield. Quite often, morals are the areas of a battlefield. Sometimes, accidents and death are areas of a battlefield. We have to push forward beyond those things into strength and into positions where we don’t fight on the devil’s battlefield, but he fights on ours.
Notice that in the parable Jesus gave about spiritual warfare concerning a strong man who was keeping his house when the stronger one came, bound him, and plundered his goods that it was the stronger one (the believer) who chose the attack grounds. No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. (Mark 3:27) We should be in the area of determining where the battlefield is going to be. Instead of spending all our time in spiritual warfare trying to get all of our needs met, we can do spiritual warfare on the offensive and begin taking things away from the devil. We can take souls away from the devil – plunder hell and populate heaven. We can push beyond the battlefields where he would like to engage us and put him on the defensive in trying to protect his own territory. We move the frontline beyond our territory and push it into his. If we can keep him engaged with our offenses, then our defense has taken care of itself. If we have been fighting offensively as well as defensively, then he doesn’t have any ability to get into our realm and steal from us.
Chapter Sixteen
Choosing Our Weapons
Warfare assumes weapons. We don’t go out to fight unless we have weapons. However, there is some confusion in the minds of many believers as to what Paul actually taught concerning the weapons that God has provided for us to use when confronting the devil. Generally, we think of the list of the armor of God given in Ephesians chapter six as our weapons; however, these items are basically our protective gear rather than our offensive arsenal.
The girdle or “belt” of truth, buckled around the waist, serves several functions. In ancient times – and in some countries today where men wear sarongs rather than pants – the girdle would increase mobility by allowing the wearer to tuck the bottom of the skirt into the belt and essentially turn the ankle-length dress to a knee-length garment that would allow him to move with more agility and run faster. The truth gives believers the freedom and mobility necessary to move in the Spirit. (John 8:32) Another function of the belt or girdle was to serve as a holster for the soldier’s weapons. As we continue our study of the tactics and implements that the Lord has provided for us, we will see that one of the most significant tactics is prayer. For prayer to be effective, it must be supported by truth. In that the active agent in our prayers is the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26, Ephesians 6:18) and the Holy Spirit is identified as the Spirit of truth (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13), it is evident that our prayers are propelled by truth. One other function of the girdle is that, if it is bound tightly around the waist, it serves as a support when lifting to protect the wearer from injuring his back. Knowing the truth gives us the ability to bear up under pressure that would otherwise destroy us. (Romans 5:3-5, Hebrews 10:32-34, James 1:2-4)
The breastplate of righteousness is strongly associated with the seal of the Spirit. To understand this concept, all we need to do is think about the reactions that occur when we do things that we realize are in error or when we do exceptionally good things. The bad things cause an immediate sensation of distress in our chests, but the good things send a flood of warm emotions around our hearts. Since the seal of the Spirit is God’s way of directing us toward the good and away from the bad, it is easy to see how Paul could envision it as a breastplate that protects our hearts.
The shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace have to do with the operation of God in our lives to share the gospel with others. When Jesus sent His disciples out on their first missionary experience, He told them that they should offer peace to every household they encountered. (Luke 10:5) He also directed them that they should shake the dust off their feet if the people refused their message. (Luke 9:5) This association of the offer of peace and the cleaning of one’s feet, if it is not received, helps us understand that Jesus and Paul saw the believers’ shoes as symbolic of their willingness to follow the Great Commission to Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (Mark 16:15) When we are actively sharing the gospel, we are in the position of the aggressor and, therefore, less vulnerable than when we are in a neutralized position. Moving targets are always harder to hit than stationary ones.
The shield of faith, as we have already seen, is the result of unified believers joining their shields together to protect one another. Paul said that this is the piece of armor that is above all the rest. It is possible that he was saying that it is out in front of everything else, or it could be that he was saying that it is more important than all the rest. In either case, the shield is attributed with the ability to quench all the fiery darts of the enemy. Thus, it is certainly one piece of armor that we need to focus on – not only for our own defense, but also for the protection of all those around us.
The helmet of salvation protects the wearer from head and brain injuries. In an earlier section, entitled “Realizing the New Creation Within Us,” I quoted Francis Frangipane’s statement from The Three Battlegrounds, “If we will be effective in spiritual warfare, the first field of conflict where we must learn warfare is the battleground of the mind.” If our brains are not renewed through salvation, they are just as damaged and dysfunctional as the minds of the worldly sinners around us. (II Corinthians 3:14, 4:4) However, when we are born again, God puts us through a “brainwashing” session that cleans out the carnal garbage and allows us to begin to manifest the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16, Philippians 2:5) The helmet of salvation allows us to keep out the harmful and debilitating thoughts that keep us captive to the world’s mode and prevent us from attaining the transforming mentality of Christ.
Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)
These first five items are all actually elements of protective armament; whereas, the only item in this list that could be seen as an offensive implement as well as a weapon of defense is the sword of the Spirit – which we have already studied as the effective aspect of Spirit-led prayer.
However, Paul – in another context – gave us another list of what he actually defined as our spiritual weapons. In the Living Bible, Ken Taylor translates II Corinthians 6:7 as, All of the godly man’s arsenal – weapons of defense, and weapons of attack – have been ours. Let’s take a look at what is actually included in this arsenal of spiritual weapons.
First, he listed purity, the ability to keep a right heart attitude in the midst of conflict. The Old Testament character Joseph could serve as an excellent example. (Genesis 37:2-36, 39:1-50:25) Even though he went through the pit, slavery, and prison, he always kept the attitude that God meant for everything to come out for good in his life. (Genesis 50:20) He went through hell with a heavenly attitude.
Next, Paul mentioned knowledge, knowing – not hoping or wishing – that God is on our side. Notice in each of the following scriptures from three different writers that each author tells us that his key is that he knows something:
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. (James 1:2-4)
For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. (Hebrews 10:34)
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:3-5)
Paul’s third entry is longsuffering, the determination to never give up. The prize is given only to the one who finishes the course. The promise of salvation is relegated to those who endure to the end. We must be like Joshua and Caleb who, even though they had to put up with forty years in the desert because of other people’s unbelief, kept their faith and eventually entered and possessed the Promised Land. (Numbers 13:1-14:38) Winston Churchill once addressed a class of graduating college seniors at their commencement by gruffly charging them, “Never give up!” He took a deep breath and bellowed out a second time, “Never give up!” Then after his third demand that they never give up, he took his seat. Dr. Lester Sumrall will forever live in the hearts of future generations as the man who would not quit. His testimonial tape entitled “I Did Not Quit” has inspired and challenged countless ministers and laymen to keep at the task God has given them.
Kindness, helping even our enemies, is Paul’s fourth item of weaponry. The Philippian jailer had beaten Paul and left him bound and bleeding while creepy, crawly things slithered across his back. Since his hands were tied, he could not defend himself from their invasion and infection. Yet, when the jailer was ready to commit suicide, Paul rushed to his rescue and saved his life – and then his soul. (Acts 16:22-34) Jesus taught us, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. (Matthew 5:44)
Paul calls his next entry simply the Holy Ghost. I’m certain that he meant to imply the entire influence of the Spirit in a Christian’s life – the gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit (I Corinthians 12:8-10), living in the Spirit (Galatians 5:25), walking in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16), being spiritually minded (Romans 8:6), and being led by Spirit so as to not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:18).
Love unfeigned – or as the New King James Version says, “sincere love” – might seem to be a strange implement for warfare, but it appears prominently as the next entry on Paul’s list. In the New Testament time, most upper class families displayed marble statues in their homes and yards. If these marble statues were chipped or cracked they were often patched with wax. In the statuary shops, the flawless items were marked as being sincere (without wax). Paul’s weapon – and ours – is flawless and genuine love, with no façade, which prepares us to become overcomers in our times of struggle.
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. (I John 5:1-4)
Jesus really raised the bar on the idea of love unfeigned when He told us that we were to love our enemies. (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27, 35) This kind of behavior is so against the human nature that if it doesn’t draw our enemies to the Christ inside us, it will drive them crazy trying to figure out what’s happening. Seriously, history is full of testimonies of Christians who – even when facing martyrdom – used this weapon of unfeigned love on their executioners and won them to Christ. Many of the stories have follow-up chapters of the faith of those who came to Christ through the love of those whom they were persecuting. Many even wound up joining them on the chopping block or at the fiery stake to give their own lives for the Lord.
The word of truth appears next. Here Paul contrasted Satan’s strongholds of deception that he mentioned in chapter ten verses three through five against the positive mind of God that he talked about in chapter four verses sixteen through eighteen. Satan’s thoughts are actually lies that make us slaves; God’s thoughts are truths that set us free. Paul had determined to focus on the liberating thoughts of God’s truth. Paul’s focus was on the streets of gold, not the stones hitting him in the head; the loving embrace of Jesus, not the strong arm of the Roman beating him; his eternal home, not the present tribulation. He was so focused on the heaven he was going to that he barely noticed the hell he was going through.
When Paul added the power of God to his armament belt, I believe that he was talking about God’s constructive – not destructive – power. Even though he was writing about warfare, I doubt that he was like James and John – the Sons of Thunder – who wanted to call down heavenly fire upon their opponents when Jesus replied that they did not know what spirit they were of. (Luke 9:54-55) I believe that he was praying exactly as the first church did when they encountered their initial persecution. In Acts 4:29-30, when the church prayed after the first confrontation, they did not ask God to “get” their enemies! Rather, they asked God to continue to stretch forth His hand and heal through them.
When Paul adds the armor of righteousness, it is apparent that this phrase is a summarizing statement because he uses a different Greek preposition to introduce it. All the above attitudes and actions must be abounding (on our right hand and on our left hand) in order for us to have victory. One translation says that these weapons serve as both our offense and our defense.
Because the apostle employed each of these weapons on a continual basis, he could say in verse four of chapter ten that the weapons of his warfare were not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds and in chapter two verse fourteen that God always caused him to triumph.
Chapter Seventeen
And the Winner is…
When it looked like there was no possible way out, one of the soldiers lamented, “It looks like we should surrender without a fight.” His companion rejoined, “I recognize those words, but the order you put them in makes no sense.”
When there is a war, there is always someone who wins. Jesus is the victor. He has the keys of death and hell. (Revelation 1:18) He bruised the heads of the serpent and its seed. (Genesis 3:15) Ephesians 2:6 and Colossians 3:1 tell us that we too are victors because we are seated in heavenly places with Christ far above the principalities, powers, and spiritual forces. When we enter spiritual warfare, one of the major assumptions is that warfare means that there is a winner – and it might as well be me. In fact it will be me! Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. (II Corinthians 2:14) Just as the Romans celebrated their victories with grandiose victory marches through the Arch de Triumph, our lives are expected to be one continual gala parade of victorious testimonies!
But we are not just victors – we are more than conquerors. (Romans 8:37) When asked what it means to be more than a conqueror, one Bible teacher explained it with the analogy of a prizefighter and his wife. The boxer went into the ring with a vicious antagonist. After suffering blows, lacerations, contusions, and bruises, he finally landed the winning punch that sent his opponent to the mat. He then crawled out of the ring as the champion – a conqueror – and was handed a sizable check for having won the bout. As soon as he arrived home, his wife happily took the check and started spending it. She did not have to go into the ring and take any blows or lose any blood, but she got the cash – she was more than a conqueror. In the spirit realm, we are just like that wife; we get all the rewards even though it was Christ who faced the enemy and defeated him at the cross. We do not have to do the battling – in fact, we couldn’t, even if it were up to us to do so. We must learn, as did Jehoshaphat, to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. (II Chronicles 20:17) No matter how much we think that we might be able to accomplish with our travailing intercession, languishing fasts, or vehement spiritual warring, we must be cautious not to go back to “conqueror mentality” when we can have “more than conqueror mentality.”
Be strong, put on the full armor, and then stand!
Chapter Eighteen
What the Devil?
Witches, warlocks, haunted houses, ghosts, poltergeists, extraterrestrials, multiple personalities, imaginary friends, voices in our heads, things that go bump in the night, the monsters under our kids’ beds, premonitions, messages and even visits from beyond the grave. What are they? Where do they come from? Are they even real? Yes, they are real, and I’ve had my fair share of encounters to prove it.
It was a dark and stormy night – well, actually it wasn’t stormy, and it wasn’t any darker than any other ordinary night. But the events of that evening seem to fit so perfectly into one of those “dark and stormy night” stories that I just couldn’t resist the intro line. In fact, the evening began as a rather ordinary one. I was visiting the University of North Carolina’s Wilmington campus. Since it was only a few miles from Wrightsville Beach, our group had decided to stay with a friend who managed an old beachfront hotel on the Atlantic Coast. The old building had long since seen its better days and was soon to be bulldozed down to make way for the parking lot for a modern condominium. After checking into our rooms, we headed back to town for a Bible study on campus. About halfway through the study, a young lady sort of floated into the room. With an out-of-this-world daze in her eyes, she looked around and asked, “What is this place?” We responded that it was a Bible study and that she was welcome to sit down and join us. Her reply was that she was just walking down the hall when “the spirit” told her to come in, so she took a seat and glared around the room as we completed our session. After the meeting, several of the students talked and prayed with her until it was time to leave the room. At that point, one of the students who was traveling with me suggested that our guest come back to the hotel with us for some further counseling.
She decided to accept the invitation, and we headed for the beach. As soon as we parked and headed toward the building, I began to feel the uncanny sensation that I was walking into a horror movie. The eeriness continued to mount as we entered the back door. Inside, the kitchen was vibrant with an unearthly presence. On the table we found a large box with a note attached. It was from a young man who had just received Jesus into his heart that day. It explained that, with his new life, he wanted to totally break from the old one that had involved a lot of occultism. The box contained all his occult books that he wished to destroy but was afraid to do so by himself. His request was that we burn them for him. Eager to rid the house of the unholy manifestation, we grabbed the box and headed for the fireplace. In that it was winter and that this relic of a hotel was anything but airtight, a roaring fire was already waiting for us in the lobby. All the lobby furniture was huddled around the fireplace as a resort for all the guests as we tried to defend ourselves against the chilly ocean breezes that blew almost as freely through the hotel as they did on the windswept sand dunes outside. Our group, including the new guest, grabbed seats close to the open fireplace as we began to toss the occult books into the flames.
Our new friend, in an almost hypnotic voice, began to talk about each of the books as she pulled them out of the box, “This is an expensive book; we can’t burn it. This is a nice one, why do you want to destroy it?” We all knew that something was wrong, but no one knew what to do or say. Upon our insistence, every book made it to the inferno, but the evil presence remained. It was at that point that we realized that the demon was not in the books but in the co-ed from the campus – so we began to try to cast it out. Notice that I said “try.” None of us had ever done that before, so we were novices using the trial-and-error method. At one point, we asked the young lady if she wanted Jesus to come into her heart so that she could go to heaven; the response was, “Oh, heaven will be boring – just sitting around playing a harp.” At that instant, I realized that I had not been talking to the young lady at all, but that my conversation was with a demon that was speaking through her. I demanded that the spirit be quiet so that the girl could hear and respond. Calling her name, I commanded her to answer me and to receive Jesus into her heart and join me in commanding the demon to leave. She did – and she was free. No longer did she stare with hollow eyes into space. No longer did she speak in a monotone. No longer did she move catatonically. Suddenly, she was a vibrant, vivacious young girl. But, she had one major problem – she didn’t know where she was or how she had gotten there. Looking at her watch, she exclaimed, “How did it get this late? I’ve only been gone about ten minutes!” In actuality, she had been in the hotel lobby at least two hours plus all the time she was in the classroom on campus. The spirit that had been controlling her had actually obliterated all reality out of her consciousness and she had been living in the twilight zone under its domination. That night, she was free at last, and she continued to live a free and productive life in Christ.
Since that day, I have met many others under the devil’s control and have seen them set free in the name of Jesus. When I rebuked the spirit in one man who came to my office for prayer, the demon threw him across the room, and he crashed into the wall. When he picked himself up, he began to hop around the room like a frog as his mouth began to spew out the vilest forms of blasphemy and profanity. Yet, at the name of Jesus, he was instantly free and stood to his feet a new man. When he came back for follow-up counseling the next day, he stopped at the receptionist’s desk and asked to see me. The receptionist called me to inform me that a gentleman claiming to be the one who had been in the prior day was there for an appointment. She added, “But this isn’t the same man; I’ve never seen this man before.” He was so radically changed that it showed on his face.
Another young man came to me for counseling and prayer. Under terrible bondage of low self-esteem, he refused to look up. Recognizing this as a demonic torment, I put my hand under his chin and forced him to raise his head and look me straight in the eyes. After ministering deliverance to him, I took him with me to a Christian fellowship meeting. Before long, people who had known the lad for several months began to come up and welcome the newcomer to the group. They had never seen him with his head up and did not recognize him as the same person they had known for a number of weeks.
As I faced these various demonic encounters, I have learned some valuable lessons about the awesome destructive power of the devil and the magnificent restoration power of Jesus. It could be summed up in the little motto, “The devil is a bad devil, but God is a good God.” It’s the same message as conveyed in John 10:10, The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Possibly the most important lesson I’ve learned in dealing with these alien forces is that the subjects have to want to be free in order to have victory over the spirits that are tormenting them. I’ve dealt with individuals who have pulled their hair, ripped their clothes off, burned themselves with cigarettes, and even cut themselves while under the demonic control; however, not a one of them has ever been able to touch me during the confrontation. Why? Because I know that I don’t have to be subject to these spirits. They respect my authority over them. They can only torment those who allow them to. One young lady was miraculously delivered of a number of very powerful spirits yet still was addicted to smoking cigarettes. That seemingly insignificant fault had an unbreakable hold over her. As I prayed for her, a man’s voice spoke through her lips, “I’m not coming out because she wants me here.” Upon questioning the young lady, I found that she was actually a willing victim of the nicotine spirit. It did not come out until she decided that she really wanted it out.
There is an old story that made the rounds a number of years ago about a man who had come for prayer at an evangelistic campaign. As the evangelist was going down the line laying hands on the people who were there to receive ministry, he eventually came to the man in question. When the minister started to pray for the gentleman, he discerned that a demonic spirit possessed the man, and he proceeded to cast it out, “Come out, you spirit of lust!” As if a scene from a V-8 commercial, the man jerked the evangelist’s hand from his forehead and slapped his own hand in its place screaming, “Stay in! Stay in!” Well, I guess this story to be a joke, but there is a lot of truth behind it. Some people simply don’t want to be free from the demonic influences in their lives. And if an individual doesn’t want to be free, it is very unlikely that anyone can make much difference by praying for him. I remember one Indian lady who came to my wife for deliverance. Even after she had spent several sessions ministering to the woman, nothing positive had happened. Finally, I stepped in on one of the sessions and asked if the woman really wanted to be free; when she could not answer positively, I advised my wife to let her alone because she was only creating her own problems. Jesus told a story that is recorded in Matthew chapter twelve and Luke chapter eleven in which He explained that the end result if a spirit is cast out of a person and that person allows it to come back is that the individual’s final situation will be much worse than his initial condition. I feared that this is what would happen to the woman if we were able to cast out the spirit, but she really didn’t care about being free – it would come back to tempt her, and she would allow it to come back in, worsening her condition. My wife and I have seen this sort of willing acceptance of demonic torment in a number of cases, especially when sexual pleasures are associated with the demonic influence.
One other area I have noticed that causes people to willingly retain demonic control over their lives can be identified in the cases where the spirit’s influence brings attention to the person under its power. One woman came to our church asking for special prayer but noted that she had already been to all the “big” evangelists, and they couldn’t do anything for her. Of course, we did everything we could to help her; but, of course, she left in just as bad a shape as when she came because she really wasn’t wanting help – just another “notch on her pistol handle” that she could use as proof when she bragged about how bad her case was. I remember one woman in Nepal who had really become the center of attention as she rolled on the floor from one side of the room to the other. She was actually rolling back and forth between a couple groups of ladies who were trying to minister to her. Eventually, my wife noticed what was happening and realized that the woman was only trying to make a big show to get the attention of everyone in the room, taking the focus off of Jesus and putting it on her. At that point, my wife stopped her and asked if she really wanted to be free or just wanted everyone to see her. When the lady realized that Peggy understood what was happening, she admitted her desire for attention and asked to be set free – and she was gloriously delivered!
One of the trophies that I keep in my bookcase is a large hunting knife that was presented to me by a young man in desperation. A spirit of murder had controlled him, tormenting him with the thought of killing his sister and dismembering her body. After the demonic control over his life was broken, he went home as a man finally at peace with himself. Yet that night, he awoke with the haunting nightmare that he was going through with the diabolic plan. It was only after he returned to my office the next morning and surrendered this weapon to me that he knew that he was free from the spirit of murder. Any physical property that has been dedicated to the devil’s purposes (such as that knife) or any item of pagan worship or witchcraft (such as the occult books in the hotel) can become lodging places for demonic entities that can remain to torment those susceptible to their control.
I was cleaning a large attic room of a house that we had just purchased. The building was empty and I was alone as I swept away years of dust. Suddenly, I felt an evil presence as I worked my way across the middle of the hardwood floor. Clutching the broom a little tighter, I looked around to locate the source of this unwelcome invader. My attention was drawn upward to the light fixture directly above my head. I noticed immediately that there was a sort of secret cubbyhole above the light where a horizontal platform for mounting the fixture had been suspended from the slanted ceiling. After locating a chair, I climbed up to investigate that mysterious secret compartment. Inside, I found the most horrible cache of pornographic literature imaginable. After removing the literature, the demonic presence left the room. Later, a group of us prayed over the house and asked that God anoint the building so that people would be aware of the Holy Spirit’s presence when they came in. We wanted to totally replace the evil with good. We knew that our prayer had taken effect on the day a man came knocking at the front door to ask what kind of house it was. He claimed to have felt the presence of Jesus as he walked down the sidewalk in front of the home. Territory that had been given over to Satan was now reclaimed for Jesus.
A bright young high school student contacted me for advice and counseling on his new life in Christ. As we corresponded over a period of several months, he suggested that he and his father would be happy for me to visit when I was in the area. It turned out that I was scheduled to visit a college campus not far from their home, so I arranged to drive down a day early and spend the night with them. I had no idea what awaited me as I walked in the front door. There were several strange items that caught my eye. For example: a lady’s dress was hanging on a coat rack in the entrance – even though the father and the mother were divorced and she had not lived in the home for many years. When the father showed me to my room, he explained that everything inside had been brought intact from a Mississippi River boat that had served as a floating house of prostitution in the 1800s. I was to sleep in a reconstructed brothel.
It was only after dinner and after my young friend retired for the night that I found out that the father was the head of the local gay rights movement. He was one of the few who had come out of the closet in the 1970s. It was a very uneasy conversation, but we spent some time discussing what the Bible says about homosexuality and that Jesus was willing to release him if he wanted to be free. A crocodile tear and a weak confession later, he asked for me to lay hands on him for deliverance. I soon discovered that all he wanted was for me to get close enough for him to lay his hands on me! The instant that he reached out for me, I screamed out, “In the name of Jesus!” and he was hurled backwards across the room. At that point, I left him sprawled across the furniture and retired to my room. It was the most restless night of my life. All night long, there was the sound of clawing on the walls and door. I knew that demon spirits were trying to attack me, but I was convinced of one fact more concretely: I was under the shadow of the Almighty, and those things would not be able to penetrate God’s protective wing. (Psalm 91:1-4) The next morning, I left for my college meeting, realizing the difference between that house and my own. In each, there was demonic manifestation. In one, it was not tolerated and had to leave; in the other, it was welcomed and had taken total control.
One interesting postscript to that story is that when I arrived for my college meeting, I found that my host had left his apartment door open for me even though he was in class at the time I was expected to arrive. So, I went in and made myself at home. While resting on his sofa, I drifted off into a sound sleep from the exhaustion of the night’s spiritual warfare. Suddenly, I was jolted to reality as the radio came on and began to blare an evangelist’s fifteen-minute show into my ear. When the man finished his quarter hour of edification and exhortation, the radio shut itself off and I drifted back to sleep. Later, my host arrived and I recounted the events of the past twenty-four hours. I ended the story by describing how neat it was that he had the radio set to turn on and off for the program and that the message was a blessing to me after the challenging encounter. With eyes like saucers, my host explained that he had not set the radio and that, in fact, it wasn’t even programmable!
On another occasion, I was invited to attend a church service to hear one of my students minister. As a special guest, I was also called to the front to help minister to the people during the altar service. Two young girls approached me for prayer to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. As I ministered to them, I could hear a commotion across the church. It soon became obvious that a demonic manifestation was out of control at the other end of the altar. Finally, the girls began to speak in other tongues, and I turned them over to one of the elders for further instruction. When the elder looked at the girls and warned them that a man was having demons cast out of him and that they should keep praying or the demons might go into them, I knew that the church was ignorant of the spiritual world. After reassuring the girls that they could not arbitrarily be taken over by unclean spirits, I went over to assist in the deliverance. I found the man sprawled out on the floor covered with open Bibles and even the big brass cross from the front of the church. They were trying every gimmick possible to make that spirit go out of the man. At least they were not beating him on the head as I have seen done in Nepal. In fact, there has been at least one case in Nepal where a parishioner actually died from a beating that his pastor inflicted upon him while trying to drive a demon out of him. However, the biblical way is that the name of Jesus be used in faith. When I did that, he was instantly set free. The lesson here is that God’s work done God’s way produces God’s results.
On another occasion, a guest minister at our church had “set some ground rules” concerning ministry during his crusade – no one other than his personal staff was to minister or lay hands on anyone during the services. Even though I was an associate minister at the church, I was submitted to that authority and was, therefore, carefully avoiding any form of intervention in situations that arose during his campaign. However, when a woman began to manifest demonic control as she lay on the floor flipping back and forth, I was really disturbed that such a blatant display was going on unchecked. I simply spoke the name of Jesus and exerted my authority under my breath without ever leaving my seat. As soon as I whispered the command for her to stop, she suddenly became calm and restful.
There definitely is a malevolent supernatural world, and it does invade our lives – more often than we would be willing to deal with. Unfortunately, most of us are unprepared for those confrontations and do not know how to handle them when they occur. Like the congregation who threw Bibles and even the brass cross on the chest of the possessed man, we try all sorts of gimmicks rather than knowing how to apply truly biblical principles and take proper action. A priest and four nuns in Romania were jailed over an attempted exorcism in which the subject died. This was sort of the reverse of the popular movie The Exorcist in which the priest who tried to set the girl free wound up losing his life. Of course, we can surmise that that was only a scene play – until we overhear one of the leading exorcists in the Catholic Church confess that a little part of him dies every time he performs an exorcism. But not all deliverance blunders are fatal; some are just plain silly. For instance, a popular teaching based on Jesus’ example in Mark 5:9 and Luke 8:30 held that the minister should always ask the demon’s name before trying to cast it out of a tormented subject. I see two major flaws in this approach: first, because the devil is a liar (John 8:44) there would be no real reason to believe his answer; and, secondly, if the spirit has never had the authority to speak through the subject’s voice, we are actually acting counterproductively by giving it more authority when we are in the process of trying to break its power. In connection with this practice, I once witnessed an over-zealous young minister attack what he thought to be a spirit in a timid little twelve-year-old girl with the command, “What is your name?” When the horrified youngster responded, “Suzie,” I figured that it was time to pull the exorcist off and try to speak prophetically into the little girl’s life with edification, exhortation, and comfort. (I Corinthians 14:3) One so-called exorcist, who had catalogued all the evil spirits and given them numbers, was ministering to an acquaintance of mine when he supposedly discerned that she was harboring two demons. At that point, he proceeded to cast out “demon number sixteen” and “demon number seventy-three.” The poor lady went to her grave without ever knowing the identity of the two wicked entities that were supposedly cast out of her. Of course, I do remember that in one of this gentleman’s books one of the demons he had cataloged was post-nasal drip. It’s at that point that I want to put a new spin on the interpretation of Luke 11:14, And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb.” Instead of the “dumb” meaning “mute,” I would question if the more contemporary meaning might be applicable. And instead of applying the term to the spirit, I would rather think that it was more appropriate to attribute it to the one trying to cast it out.
The fact that the devil is a liar who doesn’t even recognize that his lies are not even intelligent enough to benefit his cause was demonstrated when we were ministering to a woman in Nepal and a man’s voice with typical broken English spoke out of her lips, “Me too done.” We obviously knew that he wasn’t gone if he was still manifesting that way through the lady! On another occasion, I witnessed a young Nepali girl fall to the floor under what everyone thought to be the Holy Spirit anointing. However, I discerned that it was only the devil trying to hide. Thinking that no one would notice his camouflage, he felt safe while hiding inside the defenseless girl – that is until I came to her and demanded that she be set free. Instantly, the spirit tried to manifest by throwing the girl’s body violently about on the floor. Of course, we commanded it to stop and come out. As soon as we called upon the name of Jesus, she became normal again.
Another fad that swept through Christian circles several years ago was the practice of spitting up demons. In fact, many so-called deliverance ministers actually carried a supply of plastic bags and paper towels with them so that they were always ready to catch these “demons” when they came out. I suppose the first time I encountered this sort of thing was when my wife and I were just acquaintances, before we even started dating. Her roommate came home from a meeting where one of these ministers had supposedly cast a demon out of her and had actually put it in a paper bag for her to take home with her. When Peggy called me to ask whether it was safe to have that sort of thing in her apartment, it was all I could do to restrain myself from laughing. If it were a spirit, how could it possibly be kept captive in a paper bag? Apparently the “exorcist” was basing his theology on the story of the genie in Aladdin’s lamp in A Thousand and One Arabian Nights rather than the lessons of Jesus in the Bible!
One major problem I have observed around the world is that most people actually don’t recognize demonic manifestations when they occur. In the Dominican Republic, I witnessed an unusual manifestation in one of the church leaders. Not being totally familiar with the local customs, I was not exactly sure what her role in the church was; however, I had no doubt that she was a significant leader in the congregation since she had a special seat of honor in the front of the church. During the praise and worship time, she began to dance around – nothing unusual at this point since all of us, including myself, were celebrating with dancing. However, her motions became more and more animated until they could actually be called violent jerks. Several members of the congregation stepped up and grabbed hands, forming a human chain encircling her. Apparently, they were accustomed to having her act this way and had developed a system to protect her from crashing against the furnishings as she pulsated about. All the while, I was becoming more and more uneasy with the way she was thrashing about and I felt more and more certain that an evil spirit was manifesting through her. However, as a stranger in the church, I felt that it was out of place for me to intervene – especially since this was one of their leaders and it seemed to be an accepted practice for her to act like this. Eventually, she collapsed to the floor, and I could not stay in the pew any longer. Dropping to my knees beside her, I grabbed the lady and began to rebuke the spirit in English. A bloodcurdling cry exploded from her lips, and she sat up free from the power that had controlled her. When the missionary came over to interpret, she thanked me for recognizing the spirit and breaking its power. She went on to say that it had tormented her for a number of months and that it had come upon her when she had visited a voodoo-infested area bordering Haiti, the nation that shares their island.
A second problem I have noticed in this arena is that even when people do recognize the existence of demonic forces, they don’t know how to deal with them. I remember seeing a television documentary of an exorcism that took some sixteen hours before the ministers saw any relief for the girl they were praying for. It happened that this particular incident occurred in a Catholic setting and was filled with sprinkling holy water, calling upon the names of saints, and many other rituals. However, the girl was visibly changed by the end of the almost-day-long session. As I scrutinized what was happening in the documentary, I noticed that it was only after the exorcist actually used the name of Jesus that the girl received her deliverance. I couldn’t help but wonder why he didn’t try that hours earlier. Before anyone assumes that I am taking a punch at the Catholic church, let me hasten to remind you that all the other stories I’ve shared – including the one about the brass cross – happened in Protestant settings. In fact, some Protestants have a tendency to invent rituals that make the splashing of holy water seem almost mundane – things like shouting in tongues, jerking and thrashing their hands, and even renting airplanes so they can fly into the high places to do spiritual warfare in the very places where, according to Ephesians 6:12, the spiritual forces reside.
Probably the most significant problem is a false evaluation of the power and authority of the demonic realm on the one hand and of the believer on the other hand. I remember making the last round through the church one night after a very long day during a convention. It was now almost eleven o’clock and I had been there since before sun-up and would be back again before dawn the next day as well. However, I couldn’t leave and lock the building until everyone was out. My problem was one elder who was frantically trying to cast a demon out of a man. When I walked up to the scene, I overheard the elder shout, “We’ll stay here till 2 AM if that’s what it takes to get you out!” At that point, I realized two things: first, that he certainly was not going to be with me at daybreak the next morning; and secondly, that he didn’t understand spiritual authority. I promptly interrupted his deliverance session with a little teaching session by explaining that he had relinquished all authority he might have had prior to that time by setting a limit of two o’clock. I explained that the spirit recognized that the elder had attributed a certain amount of authority to it and, therefore, it had settled in with no thought of budging right up through one fifty-nine.
A good portion of the remainder of this book will focus on the specific issue of understanding exactly what authority we have and what powers the demonic forces can exert. But before we leave this section, I’d like to add just one more observation about the abilities demonstrated by these evil powers: they are not limited in terms of language. I have had many experiences in some of the most far-flung corners of the globe – places like Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Haiti – where I could command in English and the demon spirits would respond immediately. Even though the person to whom I was ministering could not understand English, the spirit inside the person would know exactly what I was saying when I would demand that it be silent or that it look at me. I’ve even had conversations with individuals who could speak back to me in perfect English while under demonic control – yet they could speak only the local language once they were set free. This truth will prove to be significant when we realize that the real authority we have in demonic encounters is through the spoken word!