Is it possible to Expel Evil Spirits From a Distance?

I have very little faith in fine religious phrases. I was with a woman once, and every time she dealt with a person who had evil spirits, she said, “I bind you and I cast you into the pit of hell.” And I thought to myself, “Well, I wish it were true, but I’d like to see some evidence.”

There was a time, I mention this by way of illustration of how real all this is, when I was dealing with the wife of a Pentecostal minister who had many evil spirits. And one of them was very, very stubborn. It would not come out. This ministry lasted about 5 hours. I think partly because I failed to lay a sound basis of teaching first.

So I got provoked with this thing, and I said, “If you don’t come out, I’m going to send you to hell.” I really don’t know whether I had scriptural authority to do it or not, but I was getting provoked. So it went on resisting me, so I said, “I command you to go to hell.” And when it eventually left, the last things it said were, “Oh, it’s so dark. It’s so dark. It’s so dark.” And with that, it went. So whether it went to hell or not, I don’t know, but I could believe in that case, I had a special gift of faith to make that thing do something that normally it would not have done.

Another question people ask is, “Is it possible to cast out evil spirits at a distance?” Well, if you have the faith, ‘cause you if you have the faith, you can say to a mountain,

“Be cast into the sea.”

But how many of you have actually cast a mountain into the sea? Would you mind showing me? All right, I’m not saying it can’t be done, but let’s be realistic about how much faith we have. Nothing offends unbelievers more than for believers to talk in a sloppy way about faith they don’t really have.

Then they say the whole thing is phony. Let’s be real.

“God has dealt to each man a measure of faith.”

Move within that measure. Be realistic. All right. Now then, people come to me frequently and say, “Why didn’t I get fully delivered?” Or, “I don’t feel fully delivered. What’s the reason?” It is impossible to give each individual a reason for their particular situation in a general talk. And sometimes, I don’t know the reason. Maybe sometimes God doesn’t even want me to know the reason.

And if in the last resort, Brother Prince doesn’t get the reason for you, you better go to God for yourself and find out. But I’ll give you four common reasons why people do not get full deliverance. These I have seen many times. Number one, lack of repentance. Most modern Christians have got no real idea what repentance is at all.

First of all, it is not an emotion. I’ve seen lots of people get highly emotional and never repent. Repentance is a decision. It’s a decision of the will. It’s a decision to stop fooling around with sin and disobedience and stubbornness. It’s turning right about, turning your back on the devil, the world, and everything that’s displeasing to God, and submitting yourself without reservation to God. That’s repentance.

And it’s the first basic foundation truth of the gospel. Get my book Repent and Believe, and you’ll see it. There isn’t any real faith without real repentance. That’s why a lot of people have problem with faith. Their real problem isn’t with faith, it’s with repentance. The first public word that Jesus preached was,

“Repent and believe the gospel.”

I know Jesus said, “Only believe,” in another place, but the presentation of believing without repentance is false teaching. There isn’t such a thing. All the way through the New Testament, right from the beginning to the end, the first requirement of God of the sinner is repent. Change your mind. Do it differently. Lots of people want to get off the hook, but that isn’t repentance. And sometimes God keeps you on the hook till you do repent. Repentance is more than wanting to get off the hook. Lots of demon activity is very distressing and unpleasant. You’d like to get an end of it, but that isn’t repentance. Repentance, as I’ve said, is turning your back on the devil, facing God, and submitting without reservation to the righteous government of Almighty God in your life. A rebel is not repentant.