Exorcism - A Christian Manual (2 page)

The head of all demons is satan.  In the Scriptures, satan is described as the evil one (1 John 5:19), the tempter (1 Thessalonians 3:5), a murderer (John 8:44), a liar, and a deceiver (John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 11:3).  He is also called the devil, which means false accuser or slanderer (Zechariah 3:1).  He was created by God and is inferior to God (Ezekiel 28:15).  He was originally the head of praise and worship in heaven and served very near to God (Ezekiel 28:10-18). 

The devil was cast out of heaven as he rebelled against God by trying to dethrone Him.  He thought that he could overpower God and sit on the throne himself (Isaiah 14:13-14).  He started a war against God with a third of the angels and they were all defeated (Ezekiel 28:16-17; Revelation 12:4,9).  These angels that followed satan in exile are now demons.  In Christianity, demons have the following characteristics:

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They can speak and have intelligence
: “He shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What do you want with me, Jesus Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torment me,’” (Mark 5:7).  “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the truth and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons,” (1 Timothy 4:1).

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They know theology and have emotions
: “You believe that there is one God. Good. Even the demons believe that and shudder,” (James 2:19). Since they know theology, they can pervert it by twisting the meaning of Scriptures to those that do not know the Bible.

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They are morally depraved, as they are called evil
: “When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, He rebuked the evil spirit,” (Mark 9:25). Demons have no conscience.  They do not care about right and wrong and their only desire is to torment and destroy as many humans as possible.  They show no compassion for any human and they hate us!

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They have amazing strength and power over the body
: “Many times it (the demon) had seized him and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places,” (Luke 8:29).

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If demons influence humans to move then they can influence objects to move
. The Lord gave satan the ability to touch anything in Job’s life except his health at first.  Later, satan caused fire to fall from the sky (Job 1: 16) and wind to move in from the desert to destroy Job’s home (Job 1:18-19).

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They cause physical illness
: “While they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, ‘Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel,’” (Matthew 9: 32-33). If they can have strength over the body, and can move objects, they can also move body organs or shut them down.

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They cause mental illness
: “When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet Him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones,” (Mark 5:2-5).  “Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him,” (1 Samuel 16:14).

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They are male and female
: There are female angels referenced in Zechariah 5:5-11. If there are female angels there must be female demons.

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They are shape-changers
: “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it,” (Hebrews 13:2). This Scripture states that angels can take on human form or appear as human. Demons are fallen angels so they may have this ability.  Also, satan has the power to disguise himself as in 2 Corinthians 11:14…”For satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”  They have the power to either get us to misperceive their forms or they can change their forms. 

Organization of the Kingdom of Demons

The kingdom of God is described in military terms as God is called the Lord of Hosts, which means the commander of a great army (Psalm 24:10).  His angels are described as being arranged in legions, which was a Roman military term that was large contingent of soldiers, with some estimates being from 3000-6000 soldiers…”Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53).

There is structure and rank in God’s kingdom as the title “archangel” means chief or lead angel in the Greek.  Jude 9 states…”But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him.”  The seraphim and cherubim are a special class of angelic beings that are usually mentioned as being close to God.  Cherubim were placed as guardians of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24), and they were bearers of God’s throne (1 Samuel 4:4).  Seraphim stand near the throne and are very close to Him (Isaiah 6:2-6).

The next class of angels in God’s Army consists of 5 different types:

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Thrones
: Colossians 1:21

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Powers
(dominions-KJV): Colossians 1:21

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Rulers
(principalities-KJV): Colossians 1:21

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Authorities
(powers-KJV): Colossians 1:21

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Powers
(virtues-KJV), found in 1 Peter 3:22 and Ephesians 1:21.

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Angels
: are the servants that interact the most and provide humans with comfort (Matthew 4:11), strength (1 Kings 19:3-8), and protection (Acts 12:6-10).

In God’s Army, there are also angels that have different territories to watch and defend, as in Daniel 10:20-21…”So he said, ‘Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; but first I will tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. (No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince.)’”  Also there are 4 angels stationed at the Euphrates river until they are released during the tribulation (Revelation 9:14-15).

The kingdom of satan is also arranged as an army with different levels of power and authority. The devil mimics God’s organization because he came from that organization.  For example, the military term ‘legion’ is used for satan’s kingdom…”Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ ‘Legion,’ he replied, because many demons have gone into him,” (Luke 8:30).   Jesus also stated that satan has a kingdom…”If satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand?” (Luke 11:18).   In this organization satan is at the head, as he is called a prince by Jesus, in John 14:30, and a ruler by Paul in Ephesians 2:2.

Ephesians 6:12 describes a hierarchy of satan’s kingdom…”For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers (principalities-KJV), against the authorities (powers-KJV), against the powers of this dark world (rulers of darkness-KJV) and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (spiritual wickedness in high places-KJV).”  This can be broken down the following way:

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Rulers/Principalities
(Greek: archas): denotes ranking-different levels of power, and this is where we derive the term hierarchy.

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Authorities/Powers
(Greek: exousia): this means having the power granted or the right to do something. Having the right and the power to carry out a task.

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Powers/Rulers of darkness
(plural): there are multiple dark rulers.

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Spiritual forces of evil/spiritual wickedness
: malicious.  

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Wrestling:
this word in the Greek means going face to face in combat. Exorcisms and intercessory prayer are ways that we wrestle with the enemy.

Putting this all together reveals that satan’s kingdom has levels of power, like privates, sergeants, majors and generals.  It also has different levels of authority that relates to the power level.  This authority is usually in assigned territories.  For example, some demons are assigned to different cities, like San Francisco is assigned sexually perverse demons and Chicago has violent and corrupt demons.  Another avenue of authority is rank.  The more authority a demon has the greater the rank.  In addition, there are many ruler demons, which indicates that there are legions of underlings assigned to each.  And finally, these demons are sent to maliciously destroy us in any way possible.

We are to wrestle with these spirits because they are behind the destruction of this world.  It is not just the people but the demons behind their actions.  Humans can do great evil on their own, but many evil things originate in the influence of demons on weak human beings. Knowing that demons are the source of many of the world’s ills, we have the remedy to reduce their power and influence: Exorcisms in the Name of Jesus.          

It is essential to understand that not all demons are alike.  There are many powerful demons that take more preparations to cast out.  For example, in Mark chapter 9, Jesus takes some of the disciples to the mountain and was transfigured before them.  Meanwhile, a man brought his demon-possessed son to the remaining disciples for help but they could not drive the demon out.  When Jesus came back, He cast the demon out and healed the boy.  When the disciples asked why they couldn’t drive out the demon, Jesus said that this particular type of demon could only come out by fasting and prayer (Mark 9:2-29).  In other words, this was a powerful demon that needed much preparation before the exorcism could take place; the disciples had to be spiritually prepared for a wrestling battle and it wasn’t going to be easy.

For example, exorcisms are not easy even in the best of circumstances.  But there are times when a particularly powerful ruling spirit may attempt to hinder an exorcism because the person needing the exorcism is a valuable asset to the kingdom of darkness.  The ruling demon over a city or state may try to increase the power of evil to combat the exorcist.  They may also increase fear and doubt in the person needing the exorcism so that he gives up hope.

In one exorcism things were going on as planned but right in the middle of it a large evil presence entered the room and it felt as if all the oxygen left-the room became suffocating.  There was a high pitch scream that became deafening on and off and the client began to shake and her eyes rolled back into her head.   We began to pray against this demon.  When we did, it began to talk through the client by stating that it was the prince of the city and it had more authority over the client than we did.  The more we prayed the more that the demon stated that we were going to lose and that it was going to kill her.  It became excruciating, but after an hour it finally broke and the spirit left and the noise stopped.  We resumed the exorcism but it left us all drained.  After this experience we learned to seal off the territory through prayer and bind all territorial spirits in the area.     

Chapter 2

How Demons Enter

One of the main goals of demons is to totally possess humans. But, there are rules-they cannot simply enter any person whenever they feel like it.  For example, we all sleep and this is a vast amount of time where we are not praying and we are not spiritually aware.  Yet, we are watched over and protected from evil.  Sleep time would be the perfect time for demons to possess humans, but in most cases we are protected.  There are demons that visit in the night (incubus and succubus spirits), but one must succumb to their temptations in order for them to gain a foothold.  So, they look for ways to enter. 

Demons are more powerful than humans as they are fallen angels.  All of them would like to wipe out the human race-yet they cannot.  So, there must be rules that need to be broken for these supernatural beings to have any contact with us at all.  They always have the power to invade or lives but they don’t have the right to do it.  They wait for humans to open the door and then they can come in.  For example, some of the rules are:

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They cannot enter a dead body and bring it to life permanently (though they can manipulate a dead body, as some Satanists will dig up a dead body and ask it questions and a demon may speak through it). Only God can create life and sustain it;

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One sin does not mean an automatic possession. If that were true we would all be possessed daily;

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Demons cannot harm anyone at any time; there must a doorway that is opened;

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There can be temporary oppressions as in the case of Saul, where the demon can come and go.

In many cases demons are working for a long time in our lives before they are recognized.  Tragically, some never realize their presence and they do great damage.  For example, Gary Heidnik was an absolute monster.  He kept women locked in his basement, and chained to the ceiling for years.  He raped them and tortured them daily.  He dug a hole in the floor and filled it with water.  He would put the girls in the hole and then put a live electrical wire in the hole and shock them; one girl died from this torture.  He blasted loud music constantly so no one would hear them call out.  He was so paranoid that they would plot against him that he jammed a screw driver into their ears to make them deaf, so that they couldn’t hear him coming.  He fed them dog food and kept them in a freezing basement with little covering.  One girl died of abuse and he actually fed her to his dog and the other captives.