Ministering Deliverance

Let's talk about the symptoms of demonic attachment. There are several symptoms. One is hearing voices. (I'm not talking about hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.) If somebody has a spirit guide or if he's in communication with dead people, this is not a good thing. If people say they are in communication with God, you might need to always test those spirits.

I was a counselor at a Spirit West Coast event a couple of summers ago. There was an evangelistic meeting that was going on across the place and most people were at it. But somebody had to be at the prayer tent along the main place. So I was the only one at the prayer booth, and a man came in for prayer. Of course I wasn't expecting anything major when this guy came in. He said, "Well I need some prayer for the new ministry I feel like God has called me to do." I said, "Really?" He said, "Yeah." He said, "God always speaks to me. In fact, God gives me a lot of scripture that's not in the Bible." That was clue number one that something was wrong. I said, "Is that so?" He said, "Yeah. I'd like you to pray that God will help me in this ministry because I'm trying to start a ministry with children and I'd like to gather an army of children together and I'd like for you to pray that these parents will just simply let these kids go with me." My yellow flags were waving as he said this. In fact, they turned from yellow to red. I said, "Is that so?"

I began to talk to him a little bit about the way that God was speaking to him and about all this extra scripture that this person was getting. And I asked, "Do you have a church that you belong to?" He said, "No. I attend a couple, but I don't have a church that I'm committed to."

That was a warning light, warning that he was not under authority. "Do you have a pastor or someone who you call or consider a pastor?" I asked. He said, "Well, no I don't." "Do you have anybody who can speak into your life?" I asked. He said, "Well, no." I said, "OK. Can I pray for you now?"

At that moment he took off running and halfway turned around, just said a few choice words to me and he would not let me pray for him. Now this guy was hearing real voices and it wasn't the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Whenever a person hears voices, we must remember that there are some mental conditions where people hear voices that are simply due to some imbalance in their brain. I'm not talking about that. But I'm talking about a person who is hearing "real" voices -- and they need to discern if these voices are coming on the outside or are coming on the inside. You need to discern here. A lot of times when the voices do come, darkness comes as an angel of light. And if the person hears something that is not God -- there is an inroad there. There is something that needs to be cut off. It is important to discern the difference between God's voice and the devil's voice.

Another symptom is any uncontrollable sin. Uncontrollable sin is when a person knows he is going to do something. He doesn't want to do it, but he can't help himself. He does it anyway. He knows he's about to do it again and he doesn't want to do it, but finds himself doing it anyhow. And afterward he experiences a lot of remorse and guilt. He thinks how dumb, how stupid that was. But, at the time it was so compulsive, so uncontrollable that the person couldn't stop it if he wanted to. He tries to put the brakes on, but he is just unable to do so. He finds himself falling right into it and afterward there seems to be a little bit more control in his life. But at the time he can't control it, and he doesn't understand and then there's the great remorse and great guilt. Usually when that happens, there is probably some demonic attachment there.

The next symptom is a habitual uncontrollable behavior. It's very similar to the uncontrollable sin. But here I just use the terminology "behavior," not necessarily sin; it's just uncontrollable behavior. Compulsions that rule our lives, they are just out of control in some areas. What starts out to be a habit turns into a compulsion. They are just driven by this. And this thing may not necessarily be sin, but it's just as disabling. It disables them. It's kind of like people who are cutters. There are people who cut themselves. Mostly it's young people. If you talk to them and ask, "Why do you do this?" They say, "I don't know. I can't help it. I couldn't control it when I did it." They have these little scars and these cuts all up and down their arms and they're always cutting themselves to bleed. I ask, "Why are you doing that?" A lot of them say, "I can't help it. I can't control it. I can't stop it. Something tells me to do this and drives me to do it and I do it." Be real suspicious when that happens.

Another symptom is abnormal emotions, such as an overwhelming sense of negative emotions like a dominating fear. It may be simply an unrealistic fear. But yet even though it is unrealistic for them to have that fear, it's still real to them. I'm not saying that all fear or all emotions that seem to be a little quirky are demonic; but if it is very abnormal and consuming, you should at least check it out. At least be a little suspicious.

An example is a woman who has a fear of rape. Now, there should be some very normal checks and balances and warnings that God gives a woman. In other words, she pulls up to the parking garage and it's all dark. OK. Those are normal cautions. When a woman gets around certain people, there are certain normal cautions. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about when it's dominating and consuming her -- even around people when it just shouldn't be there. Then you have to be real suspicious.

Another example is an irrational fear of rejection. Every time they get around somebody, they think, "You're going to reject me, you're going to reject me, nobody's going to like me, you're always going to reject me." They approach every situation assuming that they will be rejected. If that dominates their life, then be real suspicious.

Another symptom is the person who is consumed with bitterness and unforgiveness. They just refuse to give it up or to release or let go of that bitterness -- be real suspicious.

Another symptom is when somebody has a chronic sickness, maybe even hereditary, something they can't seem to get rid of. I'm not saying their sickness is demonized or somebody is demonized; I'm not saying that at all. But there are some sicknesses, like we read earlier, that are caused by demons. Always check that out. You don't know. Now, obviously if you had a car wreck and you have a bad back from having a car wreck, you can't say, "Well, that demon got hold of my back." No, you just had a car wreck, but always check it out. Just always check it out if it's chronic.

There are a few other symptoms. Rage is one. It is an uncontrollable emotion. I talked about that earlier when I talked about myself. Another symptom is habitual depression, which could be a chemical imbalance. Just check it out. You just don't know. Another one would be self-hatred. People who just can't learn to love themselves because of self-hatred, always thinking about suicide. I'm not talking about the person who has the occasional pity party, because we all go through that from time to time. If things don't go our way, we throw our little pity parties. I'm talking about the person who is simply consumed with depression.

Now let me throw something in here. Just because a person is mentally ill doesn't mean that they're demonized. I know some people want to put all mentally ill people in the category of people who are demonized, but I don't do that. I think some people are born in a way that there is simply a brain deficiency. It could be that they were born with something that wasn't there. There may be something that doesn't connect adequately. Some of it could be a physiological nerve-ending problem. Some people could have a chemical imbalance in their bodies. For some people, you just get them on a good diet and it will cure them. They just deplete their bodies of so many things, and that just causes the brain not to work and function adequately.

That's why we really need discernment in this area, because a lot of people can have those things that are there and really not be demonic at all. What I'm saying is that when these things are there, just be a little suspicious. Don't assume that just because they're having those symptoms, they are demonized. But, here again, be real suspicious if that happens. Make allowances for that.

I know some don't believe in demons. I remember attending a conference one time and the guy didn't believe in demons. And I challenged him on that over and over again. I said, "How can you not believe in demons? You believe the Bible, but you don't believe in demons." He said, "Well, I believe they were just like, they were just mental illness." So what did Jesus do? Did He cast that mental illness into a bunch of pigs, and that's why they went off the cliff -- because they were mentally depressed?

You know, there are some things that you just can't quite get an explanation on. But the truth is, I don't think that everybody that we may characterize as being demonized is. There may be something actually mental or physiological than can be at its root. So don't put everybody who is struggling in that area as being demonized. That is not to say that they don't have a critter or two, even in the midst of mental illness either.