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Francis MacNutt: Deliverance from Evil Spirits – a practical manual
Chosen Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan 1995
Notes by Alison Morgan, June 1999
1. How I got involved in casting out demons
Through experience, not theory. Dangerous; but every minister should be able to help hundreds of people through prayer for deliverance.
Demonised people often appear from nowhere – in healing service, for example. No other explanation – have always been normal till this point, have never seen anyone else behaving this way, yet speak and behave uncharacteristically and violently. Usual pattern is that after prayer the person says she felt the spirits leave, and is peaceful; she remembers little of what happened, as if it had been a temporary possession. You on the other hand are tired.
Sees need for deliverance as common, not rare, problem. Most of us have been trained to refer to someone else; but deliverance is our job. Is not academic issue; matter of life and death.
The existence and kinds of evil spirits
2. Do demons really exist?
Scripture and experience.
Delivering people from evil spirits is, together with forgiving sins and healing the sick, an essential part of the gospel.
OT: Saul tormented by evil spirit 1 Sam 16; lying spirit 1 Kings 22.
NT: numerous refs. 7 specific accounts of Jesus casting evil spirits out of individuals.
Modern embarrassment about the supernatural.
Biblical worldview of evil: can’t overcome it by simple teaching; it is at its root demonic
: Jesus came to overcome it
: can be overcome only by power of God
: through prayer we become channels for Jesus to heal and free people
3. What is the evidence of human experience?
Jesus assumed the existence of a spirit world; experience backs him up. Church professes scepticism, while occult section of bookshops grows. Majority of world believes in evil spirits; but too often missionaries turn the good news into good advice and expect them to grow out of it. Field thus relinquished to witchdoctors. Psychiatrists
are coming to believe in evil spirits – see Scott Peck, People of the Lie.
4. Should we call it possession?
Possession, and need for exorcism, is rare. Deliverance is common; find struggle going on between individual and infesting spirit. Mostly find one area of person’s life is affected. Prince: centre city free, but back streets occupied by criminal gangs. Demonisation or infestation are better words.
Levels of demonic activity
Temptation
Physical attacks/obstructions – eg car, computer won’t work
Emotional oppression; heaviness or depression.
Demonisation – from within; causing physical pain, inability to say Jesus Christ, even taking control of
person’s voice/body. Person can tell you when it/they have left.
Possession – temporary possession can come when we praying to evict spirits from a demonised person; quite common. Permanent possession rare.
Christians can be demonised.
5. How do we know if an evil spirit is really present?
Usually find psychological problem as well as demonic interference.
How to tell when a person needs deliverance
They tell you they do (which they are usually reluctant to do); they experience demonic control, voices, compulsions
Symptoms: bodily contortions, changes in voice, changes in expression.
Warning: multiple personality disorder may look the same
Discernment (presence and identity)
What you do: pray for baptism of Spirit; look and listen carefully; don’t go in beyond experience.
6. The different kinds of evil spirits
They have names. Helpful to know name and rank for ministry. Higher ones require person with greater spiritual authority and take longer. Knowing its name gives you additional power over it.
4 major groups of spirits:
1. Spirits of the occult: usually have odd personal names, and are high in rank. Come from involvement
in the occult. Are most dangerous 10%.
2. Spirits of sin, eg lust, envy. Enter a habitation built by sin; repentance therefore necessary.
3. Spirits of trauma. Perhaps 2 thirds of deliverance prayer is here.
4. Ancestral/familiar spirits, having ordinary names. Are either demons masquerading as dead people,
or souls of dead needing rest (2 theories). If in doubt, just send it to Jesus.
Curses and the power of false judgment
7. Falling under a curse
We ignore, but traditional pagan religion not only believes in it but concentrates on seeking blessings and
avoiding curses through the rituals of their shamans.
Evidence of scripture also compelling – see eg blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28. Scripture teaches words can convey spiritual power for either good or evil.
Pagans understand spiritual warfare better than we do.
How do we know if someone is cursed: discernment; mental or emotional breakdown, repeated/chronic sickness (esp if hereditary and with no known cause), barrenness/miscarriage; marriage/family breakdown; financial insufficiency when should be OK by education and salary; being accident-prone; family history of suicide/untimely death.
Covens target clergy marriages and churches. His family prays daily for protection.
Curses from the past – if family in previous generations has been involved in the occult; has been cursed by someone else; has been deeply involved in some kind of sinful activity.
Curses from a present cause: many Christian leaders are targeted by local covens and unwittingly afflicted, eg depression, illness, obsessive thoughts.
Minster in India reckons about a third of those he prays for are delivered from demons identifying themselves as Hindu gods.
Superstitions eg Friday 13th. This is a day sacred to satanic covens, which meet to send curses and spells.
His daily prayer: Lord Jesus, I ask you to protect our family [named] from all harm and from accidents. If any of us has been subjected to any curses, hexes or spells, I declare these curses, hexes or spells null and void in the name
of Jesus Christ. If any evil spirits have been sent against us, I decommission you in the name of Jesus Christ and I send you to Jesus to deal with as he will. Then, Lord, I ask you to send your holy angels to guard and protect all of us.
Categories of sin that ordinarily call down a curse on us (Prince):
– worship of false gods, esp spiritualism or other occult activities
– disrespect for parents
– oppressing people
– illicit/unnatural sex
Need repentance and renunciation.
All this is like taking out the rubbish.
8. Curse-like judgments and ties that bind
Judgments of parents and authority figures. Adults can also receive a harsh criticism and make it their own, turning it into a festering wound.
Self-imposed vows – to protect self from further hurt.
How to deal with these bondages: ask them to forgive person who said it; cut them free from it; if sense some demonic force has hooked in, command it to leave.
In case of vows: they to repent; you break vow and cut them free from it, command spirits to leave, ask Jesus to restore the part of their life that was most wounded by the judgment or vow.
Spiritual and psychological ties – eg man on mother; sexual ties. Good idea to pray for deliverance for each partner entering a marriage.
9. Who can pray for deliverance?
Early church – all believers
Early adult baptism service included exorcism; believed all pagans needed it.
Restrictions introduced till by MA the priest was the normal minister of exorcism.
1604 Anglican clergy forbidden except with express consent of bishop beforehand. Catholics distinguished between exorcism for the possessed, and private exorcism for deliverance.
Revival of exorcism through Pentecostal churches C20.
Now. Caution needed; but those gifted should have general permission from authorities, whom they should keep informed about what they are doing.
3 levels of spiritual warfare:
– protection
– simple deliverance (all mature Christians can do it)
– heavy deliverance (where there has been involvement in occult); specialist.
Getting ready
10. How to prepare
Exorcist should be person who combines simple faith with an awareness of difficulties; who can join knowledge of psychology and human frailty with the exercise of the gifts of the HS.
You can’t pray for them all – too many.
Decide on best time and place; don’t let Satan set it (midnight, after meeting…)
If in doubt, pray prayer of blessing. It may develop into deliverance, or remain as simple blessing.
Decide on timescale – one off or weekly sessions (combination of counselling and prayer).
Prepare yourself by prayer (and perhaps fasting).
11. Selecting a team
Work with a team if possible.
Not alone with client of opposite sex; spirits of lust may work.
If have team, can take break if tired; people there to restrain client if necessary; will have greater variety of spiritual gifts at your disposal – this the main reason. Need those who can discern and those who can intercede, in particular.
12. How the demonized person prepares for deliverance
Normally best to hold separate interview with them first. Try and discover the reason the evil spirit has come into their being; have they done anything to contribute to the situation. If so, need confession and forgiveness. Are they infested because of another person’s sin? Need forgiveness; for which need grace.
After repentance, confession and forgiveness, need to ask 2 key questions:
– when did it start
– why did it start.
Approach to deliverance depends on kind of spirit present (wounding, sinful, occult, ancestral)
33 question occult sheet pp 160-61
Once you have discovered what needs healing and what needs deliverance, help them: repent and ask forgiveness for sins; forgive those who have injured him; renounce any occult activities he may have practised.
How to pray for deliverance
13. How to pray for deliverance: the basic form
Different for prayer for healing in that it isn’t a prayer at all, it is a command, directed not to God but to evil spirit. Opening prayers – wisdom, authority, power and love, HS, angels, forbid any communication in realm of evil
spirits.
Be compassionate, speak calmly and quietly, look person in the eye (often get negative or avoidance response). Decide how to handle temporary possession – drive out straight away or bind while person finishes commitment to Jesus or other prayer necessary first. Spirits which have not demonstrated their presence previously may feel threatened enough to surface and take over victim’s personality as they fight to keep her in their power. Makes getting permission to exorcise difficult; ordinarily the person acts normally.
Decide about laying on of hands. Some say don’t, others (inc author) believe power of HS flows out form us to the afflicted person. Not however essential.
Actual prayer for deliverance. You should know the evil spirit’s identity before you start.
Commitment, repentance, renunciation.
Ask them to look you in they eye, ask HS to guide you (silent prayer). Need discernment; do you start with the main spirit or with lesser ones. Look out for blocking spirits (mockery, lying, confusion, sleepiness, game-playing). Ordinary deliverance prayer contains these elements:
– authority: name of Jesus
– command
– name of spirit concerned
– what you command: go
– how: quietly and without hurting anyone
– where: to Jesus
How to tell when they’ve gone: sometimes instant, sometimes it takes hours or even days. Sometimes they hide and pretend they’ve gone. We tell in 3 ways: discernment of team, of victim (they mostly know), and human observation – look in their eyes, at facial expression, at behaviour. Sometimes the spirits cause pain, which moves out through body as you pray, most often in coughing.
Sometimes you’ve done enough if you’ve done the main one, and better to set another time for the rest, perhaps over weeks or months.
Finish prayer by filling in the spiritual vacuum created, with HS.
Other helps – anything that brings us into presence of God will make the spirits uncomfortable and help us deliver the person: background prayer, music, scripture readings, mentioning blood of Jesus, hymn in Phil. 2. Also oil, water, salt – all previously prepared by a blessing. Ancient prayer to bless water is: may you be a purified water, empowered to drive afar all power of the enemy, in fact, to root out and banish the enemy himself, along with his fallen angels.
Use of crucifix can be helpful.
Follow up suggestions
Closing prayer after they have left, eg:
Lord Jesus, thank you for sharing with us your wonderful ministry of healing and deliverance. Thank you for the healings we have seen and experienced today. But we realise that the sickness and evil we encounter is more than our humanity can bear. So cleanse us of any sadness, negativity or despair that we may have picked up. If our ministry has tempted me to anger, impatience or lust, cleanse us of those temptations and replace them with love, joy and peace. If any evil spirits have attached themselves to us or oppress us in any way, we command you, spirits of earth, air, fire or water, of the netherworld or of nature, to depart now and go straight to Jesus Christ, for him
to deal with as he will.
Come Holy Spirit, renew us, fill us anew with your power, life and joy. Strengthen us where we have felt weak and clothe us with your light. Fill us with life. And Lord Jesus, please send your holy angels to minister to us and our
families, and to guard and protect us from all sickness, harm and accidents, and guard us on a safe trip home. I praise you now and forever, Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Final suggestions. Makes it easier if you can get the person to take part in their own deliverance. Ask them to repeat baptismal vows or prayer of confession; then ask them to repeat after you the parts of the actual deliverance prayer:
In the name of Jesus Christ
I command you
spirit of …
to leave me now
and go to Jesus Christ
for him to deal with
and I command you never again to return.
Also ask them at intervals what is going on from their point of view.
Have one person in charge.
14. Freeing a person from spirits of trauma
Most common category, yet literature pays them the least attention. (See Sandford, A Comprehensive Guide to deliverance and inner healing, Chosen Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 1992). Names like grief, rejection, fear. Spirit of fear can invade emotion of excessive fear, and exacerbate it, blocking victim’s free will. Such spirits move in when person suffers severe emotional trauma and is unprotected spiritually. Result is irrational behaviour and temptation to commit desperate acts. Deliverance is relatively easy, because no sin involved. Inner healing needed, not repentance.
How do you tell – discernment.
How to pray for freedom from a spirit of trauma:
– protection
– binding
in the name of Jesus Christ I command you not to interfere with this prayer. I bind you off from influencing x’s will, from his mind, from his imagination or emotions, from his memories and from his body. I cut you off by the sword of the Spirit from stirring up x’s grief (or whatever). I command you to be quiet and to leave when we finish our
prayer for healing.
– forgiveness
– inner healing (go back to the event, relationship, with Jesus and ask him to heal)
– if it hasn’t gone, cast it out (very sensitively….)
– ask Jesus to fill the wounded nature
Spirits of trauma come in related clusters more often than individually.
May be consequent sin of which person needs to repent.
Plan new behaviour patterns, and give appropriate counteractive spiritual reading.
All deliverance requires inner healing; but not vv.
15. Spirits of sin
Enter after habitual and prolonged sin, or after particularly intense sin.
Unforgiveness one of the commonest spirits of sin. As usual it will identify itself when asked.
Person must repent and ask God’s forgiveness for the sin, and for hurting others. They will find it hard to shut the door on the sin, because they did it willingly for so long. It won’t go till he repents.
Spirits of sin add compulsive aspect to a sin; so can easily return.
Spirits of unforgiveness – may need to pray for the power of forgiveness first; forgiveness lies beyond our human capacity.
Two steps: help them truly repent
: pray with them for deliverance.
Inner healing may be needed in order to enable repentance. Almost every sin has a hold on us because of an emotional weakness.
16. Spirits of the occult
Most tenacious and vicious of all spirits.
Occult is spiritual realm where people seek either knowledge or power from any source other than God, when the kind of knowledge or power sought can come only from God. Most do not realise they are doing anything wrong.
Unwitting involvement (spiritualism)
Deliberate involvement (satanism)
The spirits come from hell itself and are stronger than ordinary evil or unclean spirits; witches call them demons. Minister in love.
Timing important
Ask self if you have enough spiritual authority; needed here. Make sure you live life of spiritual strength and integrity; they know your weaknesses.
Levels of involvement:
– unwitting involvement thru spiritualism/other occult practices; no intent to contact Satan
– knowingly seeking power to harm or dominate thru spells etc
– becoming channel, medium, witch
– commencing knowing and direct relationship with Satan
– belong to coven
Work with the person – preparation in Christian lifestyle important; person must desire to be whole and follow Jesus. Not enough to desire to be free from demonic torment.
Steps for counsellee to take
commit life to Christ
repent
renounce (baptismal rite)
Deliverance
Need to confront the spirits directly
Dangerous ministry; authority and team needed
Expect blocking spirits; bind them
Find out how it entered and how it plays on the person’s weakness (discernment or questioning of
person or spirit)
Keep contact with person periodically by telling it to be quiet
They come in groups; it will take a long time, even weekly sessions
Person will need time to make changes in long established thought/emotional patterns; reason for
taking it slowly
Seals. Person can be sealed for Satan, and not freed till the seal is broken. Can be done by contract or by dedication. Break it if the deliverance isn’t working. Can even happen in utero.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I break every seal of Satan and I set you free by the sword of the Holy Spirit
17. Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA)
Programming covens use to purposely invest victims with occult spirits; esp children. Is evidence. Hard to prove in court though’ – child witnesses or years later. Victims will not remember a lot; will not believe in love or that you care; will confuse love with sex; will have been programmed to hurt you and even kill themselves if they talk to an outsider about life in a coven. Release takes months and years.
SRA = the emotionally, physically and sexually abusive acts that take place during satanic rituals.
Covens have rituals to mock the Christian ones. Include ritual murder – animals usually substituted for people. Torture used to ensure control.
Common result is multiple personalities; which need to be integrated not cast out.
Points to remember:
– healing takes time
– you need to know about SRA and MPD
– she needs love but is programmed against it
– she needs ongoing and frequent support; once a week not enough
– you need to find both the personalities and the spirits
– start any session with binding
– she will harbour some personalities loyal to the coven, may even keep going at night and not remember it
– you may need to deliver her from spirits instilled directly by the coven
18. Other kinds of spirits
Others which can’t be categorised.
False religion
Legalism
Spirits that cause illness
Spirits that cause mental or emotional illness Spirits of torment; pain moving around the body
19. Deliverance through blessed objects
Oil.
Salt.
Water.
Spirits seem to be able to tell the difference between those that have been blessed and those that have not.
Salt stays for weeks/months if used to bless a room; and can be sprinkled on food. Ancient prayer for salt:
God’s creature, salt, I cast out the demon from you by the living God, by the true God, by the holy God, by God
who ordered you to be thrown into the water-springs by Elisesu to heal it of its barrenness. May you be a purified salt, a means of health for those who believe, a medicine for body and soul for all who make use of you. May all
evil fancies of the foul fiend, his malice and cunning, be driven afar from the place where you are sprinkled. And let every unclean spirit be repulsed by him who is coming to judge both the living and the dead and the world by fire. Amen. Let us pray. Almighty everlasting God, we humbly appeal to your mercy and goodness to graciously bless this creature, salt, which you have given for mankind’s use. May all who use it find in it a remedy for body and mind. And may everything that it touches or sprinkles be freed from uncleanness and any influence of the evil
spirit; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Water:
May you be a purified water, empowered to drive afar all power of the enemy, in fact, to root out and banish the enemy himself, along with his fallen angels. We ask this through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ… May everything that this water sprinkles in the homes and gatherings of the faithful be delivered from al that is unclean and hurtful; let no breath of contagion hover there, no taint of corruption; let all the wiles of the lurking enemy come to nothing. By the sprinkling of this water may everything be opposed to the safety and peace of the occupants of these homes be banished, so that in calling o your holy name they may know the well-being they desire, and be protected from every period; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Or similar.
Other helps – bibles, candles, crosses.
20. Follow-up
Prayer
Scripture and spiritual reading Church/home group attendance.
21. Larger dimensions of deliverance
Deliverance prayer also against evil principalities and powers that control entire cities, regions and nations – Wagner and others.
Deliverance from evil embedded in nations, societies and cultures which blinds people to the evil that operates in their lives – Wink and others.
22. Deliverance of places
When targeted by curses, hexes, spells
When crimes/serious sins have been committed there
When people infested by demons have lived or spent time visiting a place New home/church
23. Baptism in the HS
Appendix: sample prayers
