War on Earth

Thank you so much. God bless you all. Last night if I remember rightly and my memory is getting a bit overfilled, we dealt with spiritual warfare in the heavenlies. I can’t go back over that, but tonight we’re going to go further and we’re going to deal with spiritual warfare on earth, and primarily the persons with whom we make warfare on earth are demons or evil spirits. And that’s what we are going to talk about in a basic and practical way tonight. But I think it would be appropriate for me to begin with a brief up-to-date personal testimony.

In September of last year I was living with one of my married daughters, my only Arab daughter, in the U.K., and I went for a medical checkup and was referred to a what they call in England a consultant, the top medical rank, and I was diagnosed with cancer of the bladder. This was a very thorough diagnosis with a cystoscopy and internal inspection. And furthermore they told me it was a dangerous form of cancer because it was liable to spread to other parts of the body. Well I was not afraid. I felt somehow that God was in control. And I was living with one of my married daughters as I said, and she had a friend, the family had a friend, who was a curate. Now I don’t think most Americans know what a curate is. A curate is about the lowest rung of the officialdom of, the, um what do you call it, Anglican Church, what do you call it here the Episcopal Church. Thank you.

So I was in my daughter’s house and we had a phone call from a young man, a curate in the Anglican Church, young enough to be my grandson, and he said, “I would like to come and pray for you. May I come?” So of course I said, “Yes, you’re welcome.” He was a little timid. He sat at the opposite end of the living room and after a while I said to you him, “Now I want you to understand I’m not necessarily expecting that if you pray for me I’ll instantly be totally healed of cancer. But come and pray anyhow.”

So he came. I was sitting in a chair. He stood beside me, put his hand on my shoulder and began to pray, and it was like, I can only say it was like cats fighting inside my chest. I have never experienced such intense conflict within me. And I let out a loud, prolonged, sustained roar; not just a shout it was a roar. And at that moment I knew that I had been delivered from a demon of cancer.

Now about six months later, as far as I know, there is no evidence of cancer anywhere in my body. So I want to encourage you, it pays to get delivered from demons. Don’t be embarrassed, don’t be fearful, just accept what God has for you.

Now I want to turn to the pattern of the ministry of Jesus in this particular aspect of deliverance from evil spirits, and I want to read from Mark chapter 1 a description of the beginning of the ministry of Jesus beginning at verse 21. Mark 1:21.

“Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit.”

The Greek says in an unclean spirit. And I want to suggest to you that that man had probably been attending the synagogue like a good religious Jew for many, many years. But it says, and he, and if you read it carefully it’s not the man, it’s the spirit.

“And he cried out, Saying, ‘Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!’”

Now it’s a remarkable fact that the demon in the man immediately knew who Jesus was. It took His disciples about twelve months to discover what the demon already knew. So we’re dealing with people with supernatural knowledge.

“But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be quiet, [the Greek says be muzzled] and come out of him!’”

Now Jesus was not speaking to the man. He was speaking to the demon in the man. It’s very important to see that. There comes a point where we don’t deal with people. We deal with the demons in people, whether they’re in us or in other people.

“And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.”

You see, you have two persons. He, the demon, came out of him, the man. So there was more than one person there. There was the man and there was the person (or the demon or the evil spirit) in the man. And Jesus did not deal with the man. He dealt with the demon in the man and he was not embarrassed. Now, if that kind of behavior took place in some churches, including Pentecostal churches, you know what they’d do? They’d lead the man out and put him in the basement and let one of the deacons take care of him. And I’m not theorizing. I’ve seen that happen. Thank God we don’t have to take the man out of the church. We have to take the demon out of the man and let the man stay in the church. Then it says,

“They were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves saying, ‘What is this? A new doctrine? For with the authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.’ And immediately His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.”

I want to point out to you that Jesus was not first acknowledged as the Son of God or the Messiah. What first attracted people to Him was He had power to deal with demons and that caused His reputation to go all around that whole area. And then we read a little further on in verse 32 to 34.

“Now at evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed.”

Now demon-possessed is a bad translation and I’m really upset with the NIV which in many ways has modernized English that they’ve gone back to this old-fashioned religious language demon-possessed. And I’ll tell you why I object to it: because the word possessed suggests ownership. If you’re demon-possessed then you’re owned by a demon. Now I don’t believe that any born-again, sincere Christian can be owned by a demon. I do not believe any sincere, born-again Christian can be demon-possessed. But the Greek word that’s used can easily be, and should be, translated demonized. And I do believe that many born-again Christians are still demonized. That is, there are areas in their personality where the Holy Spirit is not yet in complete control. There’s a demon that has to be dealt with and Jesus did it. “They brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demonized.” And notice they didn’t really come for deliverance, they came for healing. But in receiving healing, many of them needed deliverance from demons. And then it goes on,

“Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak [or to say], that they knew Him.”

You see, the demons all knew who Jesus was. “And He cast out many demons.” How many of you have cast out many demons? I don’t ask for a demonstration, I just want you… How far are we up to the standard of Jesus? How far are we below the standard and the pattern of Jesus? You say, “Well, they were not Christians.” That’s true. They were Jews. But actually they were living basically by the Law of Moses and in most cases they were living much more righteous lives than most of the people in the United States today. The penalty for adultery was death. If that penalty were imposed on the American population today we’d lose about a quarter of our people immediately. Is that right? I’m not exaggerating am I? So don’t say well those were people who didn’t know righteousness. Many people say, “Well I’m sure there are people that need to be delivered from demons but they’re in prisons or they’re in lunatic asylums.”  That’s not true. Demons actually can be very comfortable in many churches.

Then we go on in Mark chapter 1 verse 39.

“And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons.”

He did two things. He preached, and He cast out demons. He didn’t just preach. He preached and He dealt with the peoples’ problems. Now when God brought me into this ministry for quite a while, for two or three years at least, I was doing exactly that all around America. I was preaching and casting out demons. And I was not embarrassed because I can’t improve on Jesus. The best I can do is do as much as He did. So I want you to understand this is a regular part of the Christian ministry. It’s a regular part of the ministry of Jesus. It’s not something extreme or fanatical. It’s just doing what Jesus did the way He did it.

Let’s look also in Luke 13 for a moment, verses 31 and 32.

“On that very day some Pharisees came to Jesus saying, ‘Get out and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You.’ And He [Jesus] said to them, ‘Go, tell that fox, [that’s Herod. He really was not too polite in some respects.] Go, tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.’’”

In other words Jesus said, “All through My earthly ministry I’m going to do two things. I’m going to cast out demons and I’m going to heal the sick.” He started that way, He continued that way, and He concluded that way. That is the pattern of the earthly ministry of Jesus. I personally have no ambition to improve on it. If I can do even a small part of what He did I’ll be satisfied.

Now there’s a very important significance about this particular ministry of casting out demons. If you read the Old Testament I think you’ll find that almost all the miracles that were performed in the New were performed in the Old. They raised the dead, they healed the sick, they fed multitudes, but there’s one thing they never did. They never cast out demons. You cannot find an example of it anywhere in the Old Testament. And in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 28, Jesus said,

“And if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

So His casting out of demons was a distinctive sign that the kingdom of God had come. It was a miracle that was not performed, as far as we know, in the Old Testament. It’s a distinctive declaration; “the kingdom of God has come.”  And really the casting out of demons is war between two kingdoms; the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Satan. And Jesus demonstrated the victory of the Kingdom of God by casting out demons.

Now let’s read the instructions that Jesus gave to His disciples. In Matthew chapter 10 verses 7 and 8, we can’t go into the background. We don’t have time. But He said this,

“And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ ‘Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.’”

So Jesus said, “You’ve got to do four things. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.” That was part of their total ministry, everywhere they went. Now you say, “Brother Prince, have you seen the dead raised?” The answer is “Yes, I have.” In East Africa, when I was principal of a college for training African teachers, two of my students died and were raised from the dead. And they each give a very interesting testimony of what happened to their spirit while it was out of their body and what happened when their spirit returned to their body. I just say that because some people say, “Well people don’t raise the dead.” The answer is people do raise the dead. They don’t raise all the dead, but they raise the dead when it’s God’s purpose that the dead should be raised.

All right. Let’s take those instructions once more. Verses 7 and 8.

“And as you go preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

However it is not enough to preach. You have to demonstrate the validity of what you’re preaching. So Jesus says,

“Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.”

Four things. One of them is casting out demons. And then in Mark 16 at the end of the gospel record Jesus gave final instructions after His resurrection to all who were to go out and preach the gospel. Mark 16 beginning at verse 15. And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

“He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. ‘And these signs will follow [or accompany] those who have believed: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues…’”

Let’s stop there. How many have heard about speaking with new tongues? Everybody here. It’s a very popular subject. But how many have heard about casting out demons? How many have seen it practiced? Praise God. You’re a rather exception congregation. But I want to point out the first supernatural sign was not speaking with tongues. It was casting out demons. You see we have kind of gaps in our theology and our practice. We do some of the things and not others. But the way Jesus told us to do it is the right way.

Now let’s consider how they obeyed. During the earthly ministry of Jesus in Luke chapter 10 verses 17 through 20, He had sent out seventy or seventy-two to prepare the way before Him.

“Then they returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.’”

That was the thing that excited them most. You see that was the new thing. Healing was not new, miraculous provision was not new, but to have authority over demons in the name of Jesus, that was exciting.

“And Jesus said to them, ‘Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.’”

I want to emphasize that here tonight because we’re going to go into action later on. Nothing shall by any means hurt you. Do not get frightened. Demons have no power against a true believer who understands who understands his right. And then one of the most interesting examples is in Acts chapter 8. How many of you know that there’s only one person in the New Testament who’s actually called an evangelist. You know that? Do you know who he is? Philip. That’s right. He’s the only person who is actually designated an evangelist. And his ministry is described in Acts chapter 8 therefore you could say his ministry is the pattern ministry of the evangelist. And it says in Acts 8 verse 5.

“Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.”

I’m so glad he didn’t have complicated theology. He preached Christ. An evangelist’s message is very simple. In Samaria he preached Christ. When he met the eunuch later on the road to Gaza he preached Jesus. That’s an evangelist’s message; Christ and Jesus.

“And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.”

Now Philip didn’t have a committee. He didn’t have a sponsoring church. He didn’t have an auditorium. He didn’t have a trained choir. I mean all those things are good but they’re not essential. What’s essential is preach the gospel with signs following and you’ll always get a crowd. You don’t have to invest with in the expense of an auditorium or a choir or all that.

I had a young friend, an African friend in East Africa who was an evangelist. And he said, “Brother Prince, there’s no problem about getting a crowd in Africa.” He said, “I walk into a village and ask how many sick people there are in the village. They bring them, I pray for them, they’re healed and I get my crowd.” He said, “I don’t have to do anything more.” That is New Testament evangelism. I’m not criticizing other ways of doing it, but they’re more elaborate and they’re more expensive.

All right we’re going on then.

“Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ [or the Messiah] to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.”

What attracted the crowd? In one word? Miracles. That’s right. Miracles are not optional; they’re not accessories. They’re an essential part of the ministry of evangelism. And I emphasize again there’s only one person actually titled an evangelist in the whole New Testament. It’s Philip. If he isn’t a pattern we don’t have a pattern. Now what kind of miracles happened?

“For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were [it says possessed but that’s wrong] who were demonized; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.”

So that is the ministry of the evangelist. It’s to preach Christ the Messiah, it’s to preach Jesus a message attested by supernatural signs; healing the sick, casting out demons, and you’ll get your crowd. I mean it never fails. You may get opposition too but that’s part of the whole package deal.

But I want you to notice that they did not maintain an atmosphere of solemn dignity in their meetings. I grew up in the Anglican Church and there are many things I respect in the Anglican Church. But you kind of tiptoed into church. You sat down quietly. You didn’t raise your voice. Nobody did anything very unusual. It was all very sedate and nicely ordered. And all those people that came in in their nice Sunday costumes, they said these beautiful words. I mean the Anglican prayer book has got some of the most beautiful spiritual words. But as a boy watching them and listening to what they said as they walked out of church, I asked myself did they really believe what they were saying? I couldn’t answer the question. I remember thinking to myself, “You know this dignified lady here. If she dropped her lace handkerchief and I ran after her and picked it up, she would be more excited about getting her handkerchief back than she would about all the things she said in the liturgy.” So I just want to point out there’s dignity and dignity. There’s religious dignity which is often a cover-up for demons.

I mean I was in a meeting, and this grieves me tremendously, I was in a meeting of a very well known American evangelist. If I gave you her name everybody would know it. She was to some extent a little while a friend of mine. But in one of her meetings a black woman began to demonstrate very clearly demon activity. And you know what they did? Two men came, caught her by the arms and carried her out. That’s all they did. That’s a tragedy. She desperately needed the ministry of the evangelist. But the evangelist was afraid it would upset her reputation. People wouldn’t come to her meetings. I think she was wrong. I think more people would have come actually. I respect her. She’s with the Lord now. But it always remained in my memory this desperate black woman crying out for help, couldn’t contain herself and was dumped. That’s all they did with her. They just put her out.

When I dealt with a demon in one woman in a church, one of the church ladies came up to me and said, “Brother Prince, you know what they would have done in most churches? They would have said ‘Our sister needs help. Would one of the deacons take her down to the basement.’” That’s not the biblical solution. She needs help but not in the basement.

Now, I want to just give you a brief description of what demons are as I understand it. My understanding is limited, but I’ll give you the best I have. I think the best thing to say is that they are persons without bodies. Demons have real personalities. They have distinctive personalities. One demon is not exactly like another. I remember something so vivid. I was dealing with a man. His wife had come to me and said, “Brother Prince, my husband needs deliverance.” And I made a mistake. I prayed for him on the basis of what his wife asked. You see? I never have done that again. If he needs deliverance let him tell me he needs deliverance. Well I started to pray for the man and he started to get violent. And his wife drew me aside and said, “Brother Prince, at home he throws chairs at me.” So I said, “Why didn’t you tell me that before we started?” Anyhow, the demons were speaking out in the man and one of them said, “I’m unclean.” And I thought now I don’t want to embarrass the man in front of his wife. I could of all sorts of unclean things that might be the problem. But I said, “You spirit of unclean thoughts come out of the man.” He said, “That’s not my name.” I said, “Come out anyhow.” He said, “That’s not my name.” I mean you can’t easily understand how much of an individual a demon is. It wanted to be recognized by the right name. Well eventually it came out but the last thing it said before it came out was, “That’s not my name.” I’m trying to impress upon you the fact we’re dealing with real persons with characteristic attributes.

I’ve already pointed out but I’ll say again two things; first of all the word is not devil. The word devil comes from the Greek word diabolos, which means a slanderer, and is a title of Satan himself. The things we are dealing with are daimonions-demons and they are not devils. They are another kind of being. Where do they come from? Well I don’t believe anybody has an absolute authoritative answer. In my thinking the most probably explanation is they are disembodied spirits of a pre-Adamic race that perished under the judgment of God between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. I’m glad to discover that our pastor more or less thinks the same. Am I right? Good. Thank you. That’s encouraging. I mean we may be wrong but that’s the best that I can come up with. But the most distinctive fact about demons is they desperately crave to occupy a body. They are not satisfied until they get inside a body. Preferably they would occupy the body of a man or a woman, but rather than be disembodied they would rather to go into the body of pigs. Because you remember the man of Gadara, the demons said, “Send us into the pigs. We don’t want to be disembodied.” What they didn’t realize was that going into the pigs would cause the death of the pigs and they were left after that with the same problem again.

But what I’m trying to deal with is you’re dealing with a person who hasn’t got a body and desperately craves to be in a body because, as I believe, only through a body can they exercise they ungodly lusts. If it’s a demon of alcohol it has to have a human throat through which to consume. If it’s a demon of sexual immorality it has to have sexual organs through which it can operate. It it’s a demon of hatred it has to have emotions that it can play upon to work through. In other words, we are surrounded by an invisible host of persons without bodies desperately craving to occupy bodies, and desperately struggling not to be out of bodies.

Now I think I need to say a little bit briefly how I became involved. I did not volunteer for this ministry. I was conscripted. First of all when I became a pastor of a very small Pentecostal congregation in West London in the early 1950s I had a serious on-going problem with depression. I know none of you have ever struggled with depression but be patient with me. I did. And it threatened to destroy my ministry because I had this continual sense I’m a failure, I won’t succeed, I can’t do it. And I struggled and struggled. I did not know the answer but I was directed to a passage in Isaiah chapter 61. What I thank God for is I always had the Bible and I always turned to the Bible and I always accepted the Bible as authoritative and final. That has protected me and preserved me through many different problems and situations. But it’s this famous passage which Jesus quoted in the synagogue in Nazareth, Isaiah chapter 61.

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the openings of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion. To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”

And as I was reading that passage God showed me, “That’s your problem. It’s a spirit of heaviness. It’s a spirit of grief. An unhappy spirit.” And let me tell you the protection is a garment of praise. When you wear a garment of praise that spirit cannot have access to you. But I had grown up—I can’t go into all my background—but I had exposed myself in many ways to demons. And there was this spirit of heaviness.

And then God brought to me this passage in Joel chapter 2 verse 32,

“Whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered.”

So in my desperation, all alone I called on the name of the Lord. I said, “Lord, deliver me from this spirit of heaviness.” And something stirred inside me, in my chest. I let out a kind of mixture of a sob and a groan and I felt something like a dark cloud lifting from me. And I realized I had been delivered from a spirit of heaviness or a spirit of mourning or a spirit of grief. But that didn’t immediate plunge me into the public ministry.

It was later on when I was in Seattle, Washington, pastoring another small Pentecostal church, and I was involved a lot with the Full Gospel Businessmen. One day a Baptist pastor phoned me and he said, “Brother Prince, I have a woman in my congregation who needs deliverance from demons.” Well I wasn’t used to Baptist pastors saying things like that. But what he said after that was still more astonishing. He said, “God has shown me that you and your wife are to be the instruments of her deliverance.” Well I don’t let peoples’ revelation dictate to me so I sent a quick telegram up to heaven, “What about it?” And I got the answer, “Well, this is from Me.” So I said all right. I made an appointment, bring the woman and we’ll do our best.

Well, we chose a Saturday morning and at that time I had just become friends with a Presbyterian couple who had just been baptized in the Holy Spirit. And while we were waiting for the Baptist lady to come, the Presbyterian couple turned up. So we said you might as well stay. We don’t know what’s going to happen but it could be exciting. Well along comes the Baptist pastor with this lady who had been the secretary of the church at one time. She was aged about thirty-five I would say. She was a perfectly normal American housewife. I scanned her from every angle. I couldn’t see anything strange about her. No metallic tone in her voice, no fire in her eyes, just an ordinary Baptist, good Baptist.

But the pastor was convinced. So he sat her down in the chair and he said, “Now she’s already been delivered from a demon of nicotine.” I thought, “She has?” And but he said there are others. So he stood in front of her and started to shout at the demons. Well I learned by experience later that you don’t get any more power by shouting. Demons are not deaf. Even spirits of deafness are not deaf.  You don’t need to shout and it’s wasting energy. Anyhow, he stood there and shouted at this demon “I command you come out,” and nothing seemed to happen. Then he said, “In the name of Jesus I command you come out,” and the woman’s face changed. A different expression came over her face. Well he stood there quite a long while and didn’t get any further, so he stepped back and I thought, “Well, if he can do it, I can do it.”

So I stood in front of the woman and I had all the theology and I said, “Now you spirit that’s in this woman, I’m speaking to you and not to the woman, what is your name?” And it wouldn’t answer. So I said, “I command you in the name of Jesus to answer. What is your name?” We went on like this for a while and suddenly it answered. But before it answered she changed. She crossed her hands over her throat and started to throttle herself. And I had this Presbyterian brother who was taller and heavier than I am. It took our united strength to pull her arms away from her throat.

Well, then we got past that stage and suddenly the demon responded. “My name is hate.” And when it said hate, every feature of the woman’s face registered the most unutterable hatred. I’d never seen such pure hatred in anybody’s eyes. So I said, “You demon of hate, come out of this woman.” And this gruff masculine voice answered out of the woman. “I’m not coming out. This is my house. I’ve lived here thirty-five years and I’m not coming out.” Well I checked everything with the Bible mentally. I though that’s right. Jesus said, “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man it goes through dry places seeking rest.” Then it says, “I will return to my house from which I went out.” So that’s Scriptural. So I beat it down with the name of Jesus and with Scripture. And suddenly it came out with a loud prolonged roar. And as it came out the woman slumped forward, relaxed and this tension in me subsided. I knew it had gone.

But the demon had said before it came out, “Even if I come out my brothers are here and they’ll kill her.” So I knew there were more than one demon. So anyhow we went through this—it must have lasted two or three hours and about seven or eight different spirits came out. One that really impressed me was self-pity and I began to understand some of the ways people respond that are not natural. The last spirit that came out was a spirit of death. And again I checked. I thought, “Is this Scriptural.” I though death is a physical condition, but then I remembered in Revelation chapter 6 there was a rider on a horse whose name was Death. So death can be a person. Well, when the spirit of death came out this woman was stretched out on her back on the floor, absolutely limp, her face was totally pale, there was no color, her skin was, was cold. If you had come in and looked at her you would have said there’s a dead person on the floor. Well, she lay there for about ten minutes and put her arms up in the air and started to speak in tongues.

Now one of the things the demons had said, I had said, “How did you come into this woman?” And it had said, that was death. I said, “When did you come into this woman?” He said, “Three and a half years ago when she nearly died on the operating table.” So I stored all this up. Well then the woman was apparently delivered so I delivered her back to the Baptist pastor and he drove her off.

About halfway through the week the woman phoned Lydia and me and said, “I think they’re trying to come back. Can you come and help me?” So we drove out to the home, talked with the woman and I diagnosed that it was fear, that she was afraid they would come back and this was opening the door. But while we were there she had a little daughter of six who was a shy, thin, rather unhappy looking little girl. And everywhere we walked she walked with us. But every time I looked at her she averted her eyes. She would not look me in the eyes. So I said to the mother, “You know, I think your daughter has some of the same problems you have.”  She said, “Will you pray for her?” I said, “By all means.”

So the next Saturday morning we had the daughter there. And basically we went through much of the same with the daughter as with the mother. Most of the same spirits that were in the mother came out of the daughter. Not all of them. But hate was one and death was one. And when death came out of the little girl she was stretched flat on her back on the floor, looking like a dead person. So I checked on them for about two years, apparently they remained free. The little girl had been graded retarded. She became a normal happy healthy little girl.

Well then gradually, by stages, the Lord launched me into a ministry of mass deliverance. And I’ve conducted ministries of that kind in Russia, Kazakhstan, in Turkey, in New Zealand, in Australia, in at least a dozen nations. And I discovered that you can do it en masse. I’m not saying it’s the best way but when the needs are so desperate you have to do what you can. And I’ve learned to instruct people, help them to identify their problem, show them how to be delivered and pray for them that they will be delivered. And I’m willing to do that here tonight later on if by any chance any of you should happen to need it.

Now I want to answer some of the common questions. How do they come in? And my answer is usually through a moment or a place of weakness. The devil searches for the weak moment or the weak place to come in.

Now what are the moments or places of weakness? This is not an exhaustive list but it will give you some understanding. First of all, prenatal. Many infants are born with a demon in them. And it happens because of something that the mother did or didn’t do. And the greatest single problem that exposes children to demons, unborn children, is involvement in the occult. And I want to say you cannot get involved in the occult in any form without being exposed to demons. There was a proverb that used to say, “He sups with the devil needs a spoon with a long handle.” I want to tell you there is no spoon made with a handle long enough to make it safe to sup with the devil.

And I want to read from Deuteronomy chapter 18 in the NIV because the language is more up-to-date. This is what God says about the occult—that is, involvement with any kind of spirits that aren’t spirits from God. It’s written to Israel before they entered the land. Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 9.

“When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire…”

So the first kind of person is those who actually make their own children living sacrifices, presenting them in a furnace to the god Molech. And I want you to understand it’s very important, all the other practices that are to follow are in the same category with offering your infant as a sacrifice to Molech. God doesn’t put any distinction.

“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery.”

Do you know what divination is? Fortune-telling. It’s trying to discern something supernaturally by a spirit that is not from God. Every fortuneteller is a diviner. If you’ve ever been to a fortuneteller you’ve been exposed to a spirit of divination. I remember dealing with a woman who needed spirit, deliverance from the spirit of divination. She said, “I can’t understand how it ever came into me.” But I discovered that in the newspaper she regularly read the horoscope pages. That’s all you need to do. None of you, I know, ever did that.

“…who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, [which is rampant in the United States today from the top of the nation downward, from the White House downwards, witchcraft is rampant.] or who casts spells, or is a medium or spiritist or consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God.”

Anyone who does any of those things is detestable. If you go to a fortuneteller, that’s detestable. God puts it in the same category with people who offer their infants in sacrifices to an evil god.

You might say, “Well what’s wrong with the occult?” I’ll try to explain it this way. When you get involved in the occult you’re making friends with God’s enemies and God takes note of that and you have to repent, and you have to cancel any involvement if you want help from God.

So that’s… Let me give you an example and remarkable example and it happened fairly recently. A woman, a very fine Christian woman came to me with real grief. She said, “We’ve just had a letter from my son who’s at college telling us that he’s been a homosexual from the womb, that he was born a homosexual.” So I began to talk to her and I said, “When you were pregnant with your son did you do anything that’s occult.” She said, “Well, yes. I tried to divine whether it was male or female, boy or girl. I had a pendulum suspended in front of my womb and I knew it if it went one way it was a boy and another way it was a girl.” I said to her, “You exposed you unborn son to a demon by what you did. That’s why he’s homosexual from birth.” Now she’s a very solid Christian woman. She understood, she repented, and I believe in due course her prayers will bring deliverance to her son. But let that be a warning to you. You cannot fool around with the occult in any form or shape and if you want a further definition of the occult it’s in my book.

I have another very common demon that enters unborn children is the demon of rejection. You see every little baby comes into the world craving one thing more than anything else which is what? Love. That’s right. But you see the mother has got too many children, she hasn’t got enough income, she discovers she’s pregnant and she regrets it. She doesn’t have to say anything. She just says I wish I wasn’t going to have this baby. That baby is born with a spirit of rejection. Now this is true of my second wife, Ruth. She was born in the height of the depression, 1930. She was the eighth child and her mother was already struggling to feed the seven previous children. And without saying anything the mother resented having another mouth to feed. And Ruth had to be delivered from a spirit of rejection. Thank God we knew what to do and she was wonderfully delivered. But rejection is one of the commonest demons and it enters very frequently while a person is still in its mother’s womb.

Then there are pressures in early childhood. James chapter 3 and verse 16 says this.

“For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing will be there.”

So in a strife-torn disharmonious home the children born or unborn, are automatically exposed to demons. And most children do not have strong enough defenses to keep the demons out. So any child born in an unhappy strife-torn divided home is exposed to demons. How many such homes are there in the United States today? There are many aren’t there? See, parents are responsible to maintain an atmosphere in their homes in which the children can grow up free from demonic molestation. But very few parents in contemporary America are doing it. That’s one reason why I wrote my book Husbands and Fathers, because the number one failure in American culture is the husband and the father. And everything ultimately revolves around him. It’s wonderful what wives and mothers can do, but no wife and mother is a substitute for a father. And the greatest single need of America today is men who are real fathers. Amen? Amen. Come on you ladies you say Amen. That’s right.

Now I have been married to two wonderful women. I am not a woman-hater. Never was and never will be. I admire women. In fact, I’m jealous for women. I want the best for them. I hate to see them prostituting themselves to the world. I have high standards for women. I know what a woman can be. Now please don’t misunderstand me when I say we need fathers I’m not saying we don’t mothers. But we have more good mothers than we have good fathers today. But many, many children in contemporary America are exposed to demons in early childhood and most of them do not have the spiritual defenses to keep them out.

Then there’s what I call emotional shock or continued emotional pressure. I remember a woman telling me once she needed to be delivered from the spirit of fear. I said how did it enter. “Well,” she said, “I was standing on the sidewalk and a terrible accident happened in front of me and at that moment I was seized with fear, and I realized the demon of fear entered me.” Now let me give you a Scripture about that. In 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 6, this is speaking about Christian women.

“As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.”

So to be a daughter of Sarah you have to be not afraid with any terror. You have not to give way to sudden emotional shock. But if you do, it’s very possible that a demon will enter.

Then another way they come which is obviously sinful acts or habits. If you continually indulge in a sinful act, repeating it, sooner or later and maybe sooner than later the demon of that act will enter you. If you continually give way to sinful habits or foolish habits… I was praying in a church once and a woman came up to me and there were several other people around me, whatever she said I said, “I think you have a demon of criticism. Do you want me to cast it out?” She said, “Yes,” I said, “You demon of criticism come out.” Well about three people all around started to get delivered at the same time. Criticism is a sinful habit and can expose you to demons.

Let me talk about one that nobody talks about in church. So because people don’t talk about it in church, churchgoers have to go to a psychiatrist for help. But I’m talking about masturbation. Now some people say masturbation is natural, it’s not evil. I don’t agree. But you’re free to have your opinion. But what I do know is there are masses and masses of people who regularly masturbate and hate themselves for doing it. And they say never again and a little while later they’re doing the same thing again. Now that is a demon. It’s a demon of masturbation. And because I don’t want to embarrass you later, I’ll tell you how it will come out. It will come out of your hands and your fingers. And you’ll feel this tingling in your fingers, and your fingers will begin to go stiff, and maybe bend backwards. I’ve seen this happen many times. A person will come up to me, “Brother Prince, I don’t say understand what’s happening to me. My fingers are tingling and they’re bending back.” I say, “You have a demon of masturbation. Hate it. Get rid of it.” And I want to tell you masturbation will not go out unless you hate it. You have to really hate it. You might say I’m a married man and happily married and thank God you are. But I have cast a demon of masturbation out of a man of fifty who was married. But he still was a slave to masturbation. And let me speak to you frankly for a moment. What happens when a married partner has a masturbation demon, is the satisfaction from the sexual act that the other person should get goes to the demon and not to the person. Can you understand what I’m saying? I hope you can. I’m trying to be frank without offensive.

And then there’s another very, very common way that demons enter and that is through idle words. And I want to read to you what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 12 about idle words, verse 36.

“But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the Day of Judgment.”

People often say well I didn’t really mean it. That’s exactly what Jesus says. That’s an idle word. Any words you speak you don’t really mean are idle. And whether you intend it or not one day, unless you repent, you’re going have a to give account for them in the Day of Judgment. Every idle word. People so often say to me, “Well, Brother Prince, I didn’t really mean it.” I say that’s precisely what it is. It’s an idle word. It’s a word you didn’t mean. And I cannot tell you how many people I’ve dealt with who have a spirit of death because they invited it in. They got depressed or discouraged and they say, “Well I might as well be dead. What’s the use of living? I’d be better off dead.”  That’s all you have to say. The demon of death is right there in front of you. It will enter many times. I’m not saying always. So that’s how they come in.

I’m just going to repeat it and that’s not everything. Number one – prenatal, an attitude in the mother that makes the baby feel unwelcome.

Pressures in early childhood—children that grow up in strife-torn homes are automatically exposed to demons.

Emotional shock or sustained emotional pressure.

Sinful acts or habits.

And idle words.

Now that’s not a comprehensive list but it gives you some idea of the way that demons come in.

Now I want to list characteristic activities of demons. Number one – demons entice. They entice us to do evil. They entice us to sin. Take an example. You’re walking along the street and somebody’s dropped their billfold full of money. And an inaudible voice says, “Pick it up. You might as well. If it was yours, they would do it. Why don’t you?” Anything that can speak is a person. And behind that inaudible voice is a person, and that person is enticing you to do evil. You may not follow it. You may resist, but nevertheless that demon is there trying to get you to do something which will expose you to him.

Then demons harass. The example I always think is this businessman who’s had a terrible day in the office. The air-conditioning failed, his secretary did the wrong thing, he had a client who was complaining and threatening to sue him. Well he makes it through the day, he gets into his car to drive home and there’s an accident on the freeway. And he sits there for one hour without air-conditioning on the freeway stewing. And I mean he’s getting hotter, and hotter and hotter. He gets home and what happens? His wife is late with the supper, the kids are running around screaming, and as they say in America “He blows his stack!” And at that moment the demon of anger enters him. You see, it’s been following him around all day just waiting for that moment of weakness to come in. And after that he’s a different person. He still loves his wife and children dearly, but from time to time something comes over him that causes him to do things that harm those he loves the most. And from time to time when his wife looks into his eyes she sees something that was never there before. What has happened? The demon of anger followed him all day and chose the weakest moment and the weakest place and jumped in.

Demons defile. They’re dirty. They’re all called unclean. They make you feel unclean. They fill your mind with dirty, unclean attitudes, emotions and thoughts, particularly if you’re planning to read your Bible or worship. Anything that attacks you at a moment like that is probably a demon. And you never feel really pure. You can sing about the blood of Jesus, how wonderful it is, but there’s something in you that doesn’t respond. Demons defile.

Demons torture. Jesus says in Matthew 18 the one who will not forgive his brother or his sister—what’s the sentence?—deliver him to what? to the torturers? That means you and me if we don’t forgive, if we retain bitterness and resentment and unforgiveness. The sentence of Jesus is deliver him to the torturers. Who are the torturers? Demons. Very simple. They torture in many ways. They torture emotionally, they torture with fear, with guilt, with some kind of uneasy feeling that you haven’t done the right thing, but you can never put your finger on it. They torture you physically. I’ve dealt with many people who’ve been delivered from a spirit of arthritis. To me if you look at arthritis, that’s demonic. It twists, it tortures, it incapacitates. Now please understand I am not saying that everybody who has arthritis has a demon, but many do.

I recall a scene in South Africa some years ago when Ruth and I were ministering together. We were praying for the sick and a person, I think it was a woman, came up with arthritis. I said to her I want you to know I’m going to deal with this as a demon. Is that okay? She said yes. Ruth and I prayed, cast the demon out, and she was delivered. Well, then I thought to myself, why go through this process with everybody individually because everybody has seen and heard it. So I said I believe that you can be delivered of the spirit of arthritis without being individually prayed for. So anybody, and it was a large congregation, anybody who needs deliverance from arthritis will you stand up. Well about thirty people stood up in different… Now I prayed a spirit commanding the spirit of arthritis to leave them. Now I said to the people don’t sit down until you know you’ve been delivered. And we went on ministering but after about half an hour every one of those people had sat down. Later on Ruth and I traveled in various parts of South Africa, we met several people who’d been the ones that stood up and sat down and they each testified they’d been healed. Now please understand I’m not saying all arthritis demonic, but if you want to get a real picture of what demons are like, arthritis is a pretty good picture. They torment, they torture, they incapacitate, they bind, they are evil things. And again there are exceptions, but it’s surprising how many people who suffer from arthritis have some kind of bitterness or resentment or unforgiveness in their life. I need not say no more. Please don’t get offended if you have arthritis, it doesn’t mean you have a demon. But if you do have a demon, get rid of it.

Then number five—demons compel. They make you do things you don’t really want to do. I would say almost any act or habit that is compulsive is probably demonic, not necessarily.

Demons also enslave. They make you slaves. Take the demon of alcohol. It enslaves you. You just cannot do without your glass of whiskey. You know it’s harmful. You don’t really enjoy it but you can’t help yourself. But people can be enslaved by other things. They can be enslaved by television. You know that? You can be an addict to television. Some television addicts walk into a room, the first thing they do is switch on the television. They don’t what program’s on, they don’t know what to watch, but they’re just as compulsive as a person who reaches for a glass of whiskey and drinks it.

Now put compulsion and enslaving together you get addiction, and our contemporary culture is full of addictions. And I would say 99.9 percent of them are demonic. Let me give you a Scripture from 1 Corinthians chapter 6. This is for me the Biblical definition of addiction. Verse 12.

“All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful.”

I would prefer to say beneficial. So all things are lawful. I’m not on any law which says “Thou shall not eat, and thou shall not do this and that.” But not everything is beneficial.

“All things are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”

So overeating and sexual immorality are specifically mentioned by Paul as possible examples of addictions. And an addict is a slave and I’m sorry to say the church is full of addicts. Not all of them are addicts but there are many, many good Christians who are nevertheless slaves. Slaves of masturbation, slaves of idle talk, slaves of defiling habits, slaves of wrong attitudes, slaves of wrong eating and drinking. I have come to see that my body is a temple for the Holy Spirit and I’m responsible for how I treat that temple. I am not free to defile it. I’m not free to do anything that would make it less good than it should be. I am very careful about what I eat and what I drink. I’m not under any law, but I try to honor God’s temple. How about you? Are you taking care of your temple? If it were a physical material temple you’d be very careful about it wouldn’t you? I mean you’d keep it swept, you’d keep the windows clean, you wouldn’t allow dust to accumulate, you wouldn’t let the toilet get clogged. What about your physical temple? How well are you maintaining that?

Let me say this and it’s just—I make no extra charge for it. I came to the United States in the 1960s. And I have myself; this is my personal subjective impression. There have been three strong men, one after the other over this nation that have sought to dominate it. The first was rebellion. In the 1960s there was an upsurge of rebellion. Well, the Bible says, “Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.” Whenever people get into rebellion they’ll get into the occult. So the next demonic force was witchcraft. But in my personal subjective judgment, those are in the past. They’re still very active but the number one strong man seeking to dominate the United States today is self-indulgence. And whereas both witchcraft and rebellion were regarded as wrong by the church, self-indulgence is practiced by the church. You can just keep loving me anyhow. But somebody said a little while ago to me, they said, “If you want to know the best restaurant in the town, ask a preacher.” And it’s true. I mean it is absolutely true. Preachers do know the best restaurant.

Well, I’ll go a little further. About 1990 I was diagnosed with a serious physical condition and I prayed many times to God. I said, “God, I don’t understand. I believe in healing. I preach healing. But I’m not healed. I’ve seen many people healed. I’m not healed.” Well God didn’t give me a definite answer but He gave me a little overview of the way I had been living in previous years. And He never said a thing; He never made a comment. But He just showed me in various situations. You know where most of them were? In restaurants. And I saw that I had been a slave to self-indulgence. In 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7 Paul says,

“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-discipline.”

That’s the NIV translation. Everybody wants power. Everybody wants love. How many people want self-discipline? You see the Holy Spirit will not discipline you unless you discipline yourself. He won’t take over and do the job for you. But if you’ll make your mind up He’ll help you. Now I mean, I have to be very careful what I say because my tapes get everywhere. But I how can I say this? I mourn over people very close to me who are slaves of their stomachs. Strange silence isn’t it? And they’re destroying themselves and they’re defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Like somebody said now he’s left off preaching and he’s meddling in other peoples business. What about coffee? Coffee is a drug. I mean everybody knows that. Now I’m not saying you’re addict but I’m saying do this. Just stop drinking coffee for 48 hours and see if you’re addicted or not. You’ll find out if you come through it’s fine, all right. But if you cannot do without it then you need to do without it. Paul said, “All things are lawful but I will not be brought under the power of anything.” And really where it boils down to for modern America is eating and drinking. That’s where we have to say, “Am I under the power of anything?” And many, many good American Christians are slaves of their stomachs to call it by the right name. And it’s an addiction and it’s demonic. I’m not saying necessarily you need to be delivered from a demon, but check and see. And mind you, you won’t be delivered if you want to keep on doing it.

All right. The final thing that demons do is they make weak or sick. And almost every form of sickness can be demonic. I’m not saying it is, but it can be caused by a demon. As I’ve said arthritis is a very conspicuous example. Migraine is another conspicuous example. Almost anything that’s torturing is demonic I would say. Torturing and enslaving.

All right now we come to the big question. Let me say something else about sickness. You know I do sometimes pray for people, check their legs. How many of you’ve seen me do that? Anybody here? That’s all right. Okay. And very often when I hold a person’s leg and it grows out the person will start to contort and twist, and behave in a very strange way. And I’ve learned that it’s a spirit of crippling. And I’ve seen many people delivered from a crippling spirit. Something that twists, deforms, enslaves. In fact I think I was on the way to having that problem myself if I hadn’t met a good chiropractor. I’m willing to take help from anybody that can help me. And I thank God for chiropractors; I thank God for doctors. I’m not against doctors. But the best One of all—His name is Jesus. That’s right.

Now we’re coming to the practical questions and here are the steps for receiving deliverance. Step number one—personally affirm you faith in Christ. The Scripture says Christ is the High Priest of our confession. It’s our confession that releases His High Priestly ministry. If we make no confession He cannot serve as our High Priest. He is the High Priest of our confession. When we say the same about ourselves as God says in His word, we release the High Priestly ministry of Jesus on our behalf.

Step number two—humble yourself. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. And I have not found anywhere in the Bible where God says He will humble us. Always, God says, you do it. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt you in due time. Humility is a decision. And in this, in this ministry of deliverance you may well have to make the decision between your dignity and your deliverance. And if your dignity is more important to you, you probably won’t get delivered. People who are getting delivered are sometimes very undignified. But my advice to you is let dignity go and receive deliverance. Because after you’ve received deliverance dignity will come back.

I want to point out to you something very, very beautiful out of the Scripture. There was one person whom God gave a unique honor never given to any other person. That was to be the first human witness of the resurrection of Jesus. And you know who she was? Mary Magdalene. And you know what it says about her in Mark 16? I want you to notice this. In Mark 16 verse 9.

“Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.”

It all goes in the same passage. So she was not inferior because she’d been delivered from seven demons. In fact, she’s the first human witness of the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus had such compassion on her broken heart that He wouldn’t even go to the Father until He’d revealed Himself to her. To me that’s one of the most marvelous illustrations of the compassion of Jesus. There was one woman so broken hearted, so much in love with Him, that He couldn’t even leave earth until He’d revealed Himself to her. Who was it? Mary Magdalene. What was her testimony? “He delivered me out of seven demons.” Brothers and sisters, don’t be ashamed if you should need deliverance. You could be ashamed if you let pride keep you from receiving deliverance.

Number one was personally affirm your faith in Christ. Number two humble yourself. Number three confess any known sin. Don’t search for sin, but if the Holy Spirit shows you unconfessed sin, confess it. I think you’ll find this is true. God has never committed Himself to forgive sins that we are not willing to confess. So if you want forgiveness you have to be prepared to confess. “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” But only if we confess our sins. Now you’re not confessing in order to tell something God He doesn’t know. Because God knows all about your sins long before you confess them. What you’re doing is bringing something dark out into the light. Because as I understand it the blood of Jesus does not cleanse in the dark. You have to bring it to the light with all its embarrassment. But when you bring it to the light the blood is applied and you are cleansed whiter than snow. It’s worth it. And listen, we’re not talking about confessing our sins to me or to the pastor. Just confessing your sins to the Lord. And after all, you’re not going to be telling Him anything He doesn’t already know because He knows all about it. But He still loves you. But it’s His condition that you bring it out into the open.

Repent of all sins. It’s not enough to confess, you have to repent. The Bible says in Proverbs, “He who covers his sins will not prosper.” If you keep it covered you will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes his sin will have mercy. So you have to confess, and then you have to forsake. You may have to throw it away, whatever it is, you may have to throw it away. It may be expensive, but you may have to throw it away.

Forgive all other people. Now this is absolutely essential. If you don’t forgive God will not forgive you. That’s the only comment Jesus made at the end of teaching the Lord’s prayer. If you forgive sins, God will forgive you. If you do not forgive, God will not forgive you. You have to make up your mind. And let me say forgiveness is not an emotion. It’s a decision. You carry in your hand IOUs from somebody to you, maybe for who knows, ten thousand dollars. But God in His hand has IOUs from you to Him for a hundred thousand dollars. God says, “Let’s make a deal. You tear up your IOUs and I’ll tear up mine. But if you don’t tear yours up, I’ll hold on to mine.”

I was teaching this years ago in Florida. The end of the session a very smartly dressed young woman of about thirty walked right up the aisle to me, stood right in front of me and said, “Mr. Prince, I just want to tell you I’ve got rid of about thirty thousand dollars worth of IOUs” turned round and walked out. She got the message. So you may have to tear up some IOUs . I have discovered that the two commonest causes why people are not delivered is number one unforgiveness and number two failure to repent. So you have to do it.

Then you have to break with the occult and all false religion. That’s essential. And you may have to get rid of occult objects that are in your house because God told Moses that if you bring them into your house, any accursed object, you’ll become accursed like the thing. Some of you’ve got things in your house that bring a curse on you. Objects related to the occult. Objects of superstition. Get rid of them. Have a housecleaning.

Let me tell you my own experience. My grandfather was the officer in the British Army who suppressed what was called the Boxer Rebellion in China. You may not know about it but there was an uprising of the Chinese Nationalists around about 1900 and something, and the British sent out an expeditionary force under the command of my grandfather that suppressed it. I’m not saying it should have been suppressed, but that’s what they did. Well my grandfather returned with some rather costly Chinese antiques. And in due course they were passed through my mother to me. And amongst there were four beautiful embroidered Chinese dragons. I mean they were beautiful. And furthermore they had five claws. And a dragon with five claws is an imperial dragon. So I had them framed and put up on the wall in my living room. But when I began to deal with deliverance the Lord had an interview with me. He said, “Tell Me, in the Bible who is represented by a dragon.” Well I didn’t have to be a theologian to answer that. I said, “The devil.” He said, “Do you think it’s appropriate that you, as a preacher, would have on the walls of your living room something that demonstrates, or advertises, or portrays the devil?” I got the message so I got rid of them. And I want to tell you this. I didn’t change what I was doing. My ministry was exactly the same. I was a traveling Bible teacher, but in the next year my income doubled. That is speaking a language you can understand. You understand that? It wouldn’t have doubled if I hadn’t taken away the hindrance, the barrier to God’s blessing. So get rid of anything occult.

Let me say one of the most dangerous and subtle forms in the occult is Freemasonry. If you have any relative or you yourself  have in any way been involved in Freemasonry, break it off totally, absolutely, terminate it, get it out of the house. Don’t maintain any connection with it. Some of the most terrible cases of demonization I’ve seen have been associated with Freemasonry.

We’ve nearly come to the end. We’re on the point of going into action. Forgive all other people. Break with the occult and all false religions. And God warned Moses and said, “If you bring any of those satanic objects into your home, you become a curse like them.” Prepare to be released from every curse over your life. We’re going to deal with that without going into it. Jesus was made a curse on the cross. That was the last thing that happened to Him that we might be redeemed from every curse and enter into the blessing of Abraham whom God blessed in all things.

There is another book that I have out there called Blessing or Curse: You Can Choose. I think it’s the most, if I may say this, the most unique revelation God has given me. Other people speak about casting out demons. I don’t know of any other book that deals systematically or thoroughly with the issue of curses. Many, many people in America and Britain and Europe today don’t believe in curses. They think they’re superstitious. Believe me if you go to Africa or Asia they know curses are real. They’re just as real here but they’re dressed up in nice pretty clothes. So you can be released from a curse. Why? Because on the cross Jesus was made a curse. That’s the only basis of release.

Take your stand with God. Come out on God’s side. Say, “God, I’m your child. I’m your servant. I want to serve You. I want to live for You. I hate anything that comes between You and me. I don’t want it. I’m for You.”

Number nine, expel. Now that’s very, very important. That’s why I titled my book They Shall Expel Demons. Because expel is not a religious word. I was looking for some word that wasn’t religious. It’s in a certain translation of the New Testament. So what is expel? You’ve got something inside you that you don’t want. What do you do? You expel it. You breathe it out. You blow it out. You sob it out. You cough it out. You scream it out, but you get it out. You don’t keep it inside you.

Now I saw this marvelous illustration somewhere near Washington, D.C. a good many years ago. A mother brought to me her four-year-old son. She said, “Will you pray for him?” I said, “What’s his problem.” She said, “Allergies.” I said “What kind of allergies.” She said, “Food allergies.” I said, “What’s he allergic too?” She said, “Tell me what he isn’t allergic to.” “Well,” I said, “I’m going to deal with this as an evil spirit. Are you prepared.” She said, “Yes.” So then I sat the little boy down and I talked to him in very simple language. I said, “There’s a bad spirit of breath inside you that keeps you from eating the things you really like. I’m going to command that spirit to come out in the name of Jesus. I want you to blow it out.” Well he was like a little soldier. I mean everything was just military. I went through it all. I said, “Now, come out you spirit.” I said, “Blow it out.” And he blew out four times. No emotion, nothing. Well, I didn’t know what had happened. So I said, “That’s the best I can do.” So off he went with his mother.

About three days later the mother was back. She said, “Pray for me.” I said, “What are your problems?” She said, “Allergies.” I said, “First of all, tell me what happened to your son.” “Well,” she said. “He marched back home with me, marched up to the refrigerator, took out everything he enjoyed, ate it all and nothing did him any harm.” You see, this is so simple that religious people can’t always do it, but expel it. I had a letter once from a woman years ago. She said, “Brother Prince, never hesitate to tell people to breathe it out.” She said, “My husband went to one of your meetings, went up to the front, prayed like you told, blew out four times and that’s all that happened. But,” she said, “he’s been a different man ever since.” This is very real. You see, it’s not up there. It’s right down here on the surface of earth.

So on my pages 216 and 217 I have the prayer for deliverance. So I want you to consider for a few moments what I’ve been saying, open your heart and mind to the Lord and say to Him, “Lord is there anything in me that I need to get rid of because I want it out?”