Ministering Deliverance

In 1982, I had my first experience ministering to the demonized, other than what I had personally experienced with me. One of the women from my church came to my wife, Mary, and said, "I'm so consumed with this fear, I'm so afraid that my husband is going to leave me." Her husband was in the Navy and she let this fear rule and control her. The truth is that her husband was probably one of the most gracious and loving people. He was like this Pillsbury doughboy type of a guy and everyone liked him and loved him. He didn't seem to be the type to leave his wife, but she was so consumed with this fear. She was so consumed that every time they bought a car, the car was put in her name only, everything was put in her name. She was plotting how she was going to support herself when he left her. He was this great guy, he was bending over backward to bless her, and he wasn't doing anything that would have caused this fear. What happened was that she had heard the words from talking with the other wives, and she began to dwell upon it until she became so consumed by it that her entire life was wrapped around it. She told my wife, and my wife asked, "Have you ever thought that might be demonic?" She said "I never thought about that." Then my wife told her to "talk to Rodney and maybe Rodney can help you get rid of that." An appointment was made that night with the woman. I called my Dad, who had been a minister for many years. I said, "I need some advice on ministering to someone who is demonized." My dad was not able to offer a lot of help.

Judy came over; I didn't know where to start. I had been given some Psalms to read, especially the ones that demons hate. Things like Psalm 18 or the last five or six Psalms that talk about genuine worship and praise. Demons hate that because they hate to hang around where worship and praise are going on. I read these Psalms and she was being blessed by this. We prayed and asked the Lord to come. We quit praying and I got up and Mary got up. Then Judy said, "I can't open my eyes." I said "What do you mean you can't open your eyes?" She said, "I don't know, I just can't open my eyes."

At this point, I was really committed, there was no turning back. You women understand this, whenever you are going into labor and you're just starting labor and you say ,"Let's just put this on hold, let's not do this." Yet you're already committed and you can't stop. Those of you who have gone through labor and delivery can identify with how I felt. I said, "In the name of Jesus, I command you to open up her eyes, release her eyes." Her eyes opened. I began to speak; she said, "This isn't funny. Your lips are moving, but I don't hear anything." So I said, "In the name of Jesus I command you to release her ears." This went on for about 5 1/2 hours. I was worn out, but she was free, absolutely free. She was free of this fear and all other fears -- free of absolute bondage.

If I would have known then what I know today, I wouldn't have gone to this detail or depth. I was wrestling anything out, I was not going to let her leave the room with a demon. So I was digging until I actually came up with the Holy Spirit. I was assaulting spirit and spirit and spirit. You know when you come up with the Holy Spirit, when you go down level, level, level and the Holy Spirit comes up you know you're done. I was harassed over and over; it was a horrible experience. I didn't want to do this again. But I ended up doing it again. It was with me.

The Lord delivered me from a few things. He delivered me from a demon of rage. I had a demonic spirit of rage. I had a familiar spirit that came in through ancestry. Scripture talks about the sins of the father being passed to the third and the fourth generations. There is an ancestry sin and ancestry ground that is given over and if there is any place of darkness, the demons feel like they have a place to touch or to afflict. So anywhere that a demon can squeeze his foot in the door, he will.

I knew I had a spirit of rage and I knew I had to get rid of this thing. I would rebuke it, it was so bad. Growing up I would lose my temper very quickly and very violently. My kindergarten teacher told my mom that she wore out more fly swatters on me than on any other child before me. This kindergarten was at our church and I was the pastor's son. I remember busting kids in the mouth when I was small, my younger brother. I split his tongue right in the middle. I was active in sports, but I didn't use the anger and rage, there were a few times when it took hold. I used to wrestle. I remember when I was a sophomore in high school, I wrestled the homecoming king; this guy was beating me horribly, like 9-1, 9-2. He was just throwing me around the mat, giving me this face thing. One point I got was a penalty point; he was beating me to a pulp. I was bleeding everywhere. He was making fun of me and I got mad. That rage welled up in me; I almost killed him. There are certain wrestling holds that you put people in to inflict pain. I took hold of him, threw him around the mat; I wasn't about to pin him. I inflicted pain on this guy until he was screaming. I was hurting him as badly as I could. I didn't care about beating him, I just wanted to hurt him. That's not my nature, this thing would rise up within me. When I was small, my mother would rebuke that anger, I was spanked more than anyone else in my family. I got more spankings from the principal than anybody else in my family. I was sent to the principal's office many times, mainly because I lost my temper. My mother use to say ,"Be ye kind one to another." I remember that rage used to well up within me.

There's one thing when you have a spirit of rage, you also have a spirit of control, because you control other people through your rage. They walk around on eggshells because they don't want to stir up the rage. So, you're able to control people. Having a spirit of rage and being the pastor of a church was not a good combination. Not that I had abused any sheep, but the potential was there.

I remember the day I was pastoring a church, in my first year of pastoring this church, right before the incident with this first woman. We were living in a mobile home, something came up in an argument and I got mad. I never hit my wife, but I caved in a wall. I did the dumb thing, something you have to fix later. My father-in-law was afraid that some boogieman was going to come and get us. So just to pacify him, I had his .22-caliber gun in the closet. All of a sudden these thoughts began racing in my mind, "Just show everybody, just go get that gun and kill yourself." I walked back there in a rage, grabbed the pistol and I looked at it.

"What in the world am I doing?" I realized those thoughts weren't my thoughts, but that this demon was controlling and ruling me. I set the gun down and said, "I gotta get rid of this." I walked out of my mobile home, got in my red Pinto wagon and drove to the other side of the church and said, "I'm not leaving this until you're gone, this time I really want you to go." Before it was just inconvenient, I wanted it to go because it was inconvenient. But now I really wanted it gone. So I rebuked it and said, "I don't want you, you have no place and in the name of Jesus I command you to leave me." And I felt that thing leave, physically I felt it leave.

That doesn't mean I don't get hacked off from time to time, I get mad, but I am not consumed with it. When you have a spirit of rage, in the midst of it you want to be mad, in the midst of it you want to be angry. There's this rush and everything blowing through you is, "I want to be this way. I feel like being this way." After ward, you feel so stupid, so remorseful, so dumb. You say, "I can't believe I did that! How stupid can I be?" But in the midst of it, you don't feel that way.

Let me tell you what happens here -- the demon gets a "legal right" for attachment. There is a key verse regarding this, Eph. 4:27. It says, "Do not give the devil an opportunity, do not give him a foothold." The KJV says, "Do not give him a place."

You see the devil can occupy only the places where he says he has the right to occupy. Keep in mind he is a liar and a deceiver, and if he even thinks he has a right, he's going to jump in there. The way this works, the grid represents your soul, what happens is that you simply give the right by giving over one area of your soul. That's the area the devil begins to gain an attachment on. You make a choice, usually in the area of sin; we will talk of other ways it happens. Your choice then turns into a habit and then the habit turns into bondage. We've given ground, a foothold, a right.

Let me give you an illustration. A piton is used in mountain climbing. This is built in such a way as to wedge in between rocks. A mountain climber will use this to attach to rocks nailing it into a crack or crevice. We all have a crack or crevice because of sin. We are all broken and shattered because of sin. When we continue to do so, this becomes a place where the devil can stick a piton into, drive it into the hole. The mountain climber attaches his D-ring into the p, and he hangs onto the mountain.

The devil does this, too, whenever he feels like he has a right, he puts something there and hangs onto it. And he says, "I have a right to be here." That place is in the area of darkness, and it's stuck in a place of hurting and wounding where we simply give in to the devil. I want you to understand something. The devil is a thief, he's a liar, he's a cheat and he does not play by fair rules.

This is what happens -- we have a wounding, a place that we give over to the devil. The process continues. That place, maybe a sin we do or an attitude of unforgiveness or fear, may develop into a habit -- and you have surrendered that ground. So the devil begins to build a stronghold in that area. When a stronghold gets established, usually there is a demonic attachment that takes place somewhere along that line.

Please understand, just being tempted does not mean that there is a demon present. Just because you have a habit doesn't mean necessarily that you're demonized. But if you get to the place where it controls you rather than you controlling it, the odds are there is usually attachment. The problem comes when you can't stop it -- you can't control it and it's habitual, it dominates you. If it rules you and you plan your day around it, I guarantee you there is a demonic attachment because you are no longer in control. But something is in control.

Once it develops a stronghold in an area, then it begins to develop a "support system." For example, if your stronghold is bitterness, it will try to develop a stronghold of fear, anger, depression and anxiety. They develop other strongholds into other areas. On your list of different things or rights the first one should be habitual sin. It's very rare that a person will commit one sin and get demonized because he has committed one sin. However, continual walking in the "sin habit" will open you up to demonic attachment. If you know a person who is walking in an area over and over again and it becomes a habit, that usually means that an attachment has taken place.