In this session weâre going to begin by answering one of the most important practical questions in this whole theme, one that many people are concerned about, that is: How do demons come in? How do they gain entry to human personalities and lives? My answers that I am going to offer to you are based on experience and I am not by any means suggesting that they are totally complete. But I will list seven different ways in which they may be able to come in.
The first one is what I call occult background. In other words, somewhere in your family history there has been involvement with the occult. And when you talk about the occult you realize that youâre dealing with false gods. Thatâs really what it is. In other words, there has been a breaking of the first two commandments, which are the basic commandments: Thou shalt have no other gods beside me and Thou shalt not make any graven image to worship. All forms of idolatry automatically expose people to demons. And in connection with those two commandments the Lord said that he would visit the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. I donât believe it applies so much to the other commandments, but itâs given in the context of the first two commandments. And so if your father, your grandfather, your great-grandfather or some other corresponding relative was involved in the occult or a false religion, or idolatry, then there is an opening into your life for evil spirits. Now you might say thatâs not fair. Well the truth of the matter is the devil isnât fair. But what I want you to understand is no one is condemning you for having the problem. Condemnation will only come to you if you reject the solution. Thatâs where condemnation comes. All right?
The second way is through personal occult involvement. And I think probably weâd better read a scripture at this point. There is a saying in English, I donât know whether you have ever heard it, âHe who sups with the devil must use a spoon with a long handle.â I just want to tell you there is no spoon made with a handle long enough to make it safe to sup with the devil. You give him your little finger and before you can turn around heâs grabbed above your elbow. There is just no way that itâs safe to be involved in the occult. Iâm going to read Deuteronomy 18:10â12.
âThere shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, [that is, offering your children in a living sacrifice to a pagan god by putting them in an oven. Now I want you to see that the other things that follow by God are classified in the same list as having your children offered as living sacrifices by fire to a pagan god.] There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, [thatâs a fortuneteller] or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. [Thatâs a pretty comprehensive list. I think every kind of occult practice is included.] For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord...â (NKJ)
So many Christians just play with horoscopes and then think there is no harm in it. Let me just point out to you that if youâd played with horoscopes under the law of Moses, you would have been put to death. Thatâs Godâs estimate of that kind of involvement.
All right. The third is what I call prenatal influences. Things that happen while you are still in your motherâs womb. And many people have an evil spirit enter them in that phase of their life. The commonest single reason is rejection. A mother resents the baby sheâs carrying in her womb. Maybe she wasnât married and itâs going to be an embarrassment or maybe sheâs not getting on well with her husband and she just doesnât want another burden in the family. Or maybe the financial situation makes it difficult for them to care for the children. But whatever, she just resents that little life thatâs starting in her womb and that little person in the womb is very sensitive to attitudes. Itâs not just a fetus. Itâs a person. And it comes out with a spirit of rejection already in it. Or a woman is pregnant, may experience some kind of a shock, a moment of fear. She yields to the fear, the spirit of fear enters her, has two options. It can stay in the woman or stay in the infant in her womb. It may find it more convenient to stay in the infant, you understand? So when the infant is born, it comes out with the spirit of fear.
Let me show you a scripture which most people donât notice in 1 Peter 3, which is advice to wives. I just want to bring out this one aspect of it. Telling wives that the pattern for them in the Bible is the attitude of Sarah to Abraham, and Iâll not linger in this point, donât get nervous. 1 Peter 3:6:
âAs Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good [and it doesnât end there] and are not afraid with any terror.â (NKJ)
To be a daughter of Abraham you have to be able to resist the sudden shock of fear. Itâs very obvious, I think, that women are more liable to sudden fright or panic than men. And again, Iâve dealt with many cases of people who needed deliverance because of some shock that came to their mother while they were still in the motherâs womb.
Another interesting thing is I noticed when I was full time in this ministry, or let me say much more engaged in it than I am regularly now, that there were people in a certain age group in the United States, many of whom seemed to need deliverance from rejection. And I began to think, maybe they were all born in the same period. And then I began to say, what period were they born in? And I discovered they were born during the great depression. And I reasoned out the mother already had six mouths to feed and not enough money and here comes the seventh child. And she may be a good woman but she inwardly resents the responsibility of that next child, and it is born with a spirit of rejection.
All right, we donât have time to dwell on any of these. Number four. But let me say, if you go to a fortune teller or some such person to find out what will happen to your baby when itâs born, you have started that baby off with two strikes against it before it even comes out of the womb.
Number four, soulish domination. See, thereâs a difference between the spirit and the soul. I canât go into that. But there are many people who control and manipulate other people by what I call soul thoughts, soulish domination. The most common example in contemporary American culture is a mother dominating her children, especially her sons. There used to be a best selling book in the Jewish community entitled How to be a Good Jewish Mother. And one of the lessons was âHow to Get Your Son to Play His Violin in Public Using no Other Motivation but Guilt.â Well, when you know the Yiddish ?amomo?, they call them in Hebrew Yiddish ?amomos?, I mean, they are the perfect example of what I am talking about. You know about the lady in the big theater who shouted out, âIs there a doctor in the house?â and a man stood up and said, âYes,â and she said, âBoy, do I have a daughter for you!â All right. But it goes a lot beyond that. I have met successful businessmen, bank presidents and people like that, who never developed in emotional maturity because they still were tied to their motherâs umbilicus. The spiritual umbilical cord had never been cut. Their methods of manipulation are endless. I think of a mother who dominated her family because every time things went wrong she got migraines. And all the family had to tiptoe around, donât talk, donât make a noise, motherâs got another of her headaches. She didnât realize it, but she kept them from doing anything she didnât want them to do by having migraines.
There are two dirty words in this context. Dominate and manipulate. And wherever you meet them, youâve met the devil.
All right, number five. Iâve had to say to some people, listen, if you want me to help you Iâve got to be honest. The fact is your mother is a witch. You still have got to honor her but sheâs a witch. Iâve had to tell people who got delivered youâre just not free to go back to your parentsâ home. Youâll have to stay away, because you donât have the spiritual strength to stay free from that dominating manipulating influence.
Number five, pressures in early childhood. I have discovered that a childâs spiritual and emotional defenses are not strong enough to keep out persistent demon pressure. Now it says in James 3:16 something thatâs worth bearing in mind. James 3:16:
âFor where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.â (NKJ)
So where there is an atmosphere of strife and disharmony between the parents, it generates a condition in which the children will be automatically exposed to demon influence. And I would say more than ninety percent of children are incapable of keeping them out. My observation is that eighty percent of demon problems started in a personâs life before the age of five. And the parents are responsible for that situation, you understand?
Number six, moment or place of weakness. It can be emotional weakness, it can be physical weakness. A woman is standing on a street corner and a horrible automobile accident takes place in front of her eyes. Sheâs exposed to the spirit of fear. Or a woman has only one child, this is a case I actually dealt with. A boy at the age of five, he died. She goes into depression and stays in it for years. She has opened up to the spirit of grief which is a very powerful spirit. Or a woman is expecting to get married and at the last moment the engagement is canceled and she yields to the spirit of disappointment and goes through life an incomplete person.
I remember I was teaching once, years ago, in a certain place, and there was a lady who was Pentecostal and very scriptural sitting on the front row. And I happened to name the spirit of disappointment. And I watched her face. It convulsed. She changed totally, her whole personality changed until she was delivered from that spirit of disappointment. You see, if you build your hopes on something and it doesnât work out, youâre probably exposed to an evil force.
Now another kind of weakness is physical weakness. Let me give you this example. Iâve talked about epilepsy as being produced at times by an evil spirit. Some years ago my first wife and I had a girl of about eighteen who came to us, she heard my tape, she was a confirmed diagnosed epileptic, on medication, but she believed that it was an evil spirit. She came to us for deliverance. So Lydia and I prayed for her and we felt that the spirit had left. But then the Lord seemed to say to me, âYour job isnât finished.â So I said to the girl, âNow tell me, how did this start? Did it start with a physical injury?â And she said, âYes, I was struck on the head by a baseball and after that the seizures started.â âWell,â I said, âthe physical injury was purely physical, but it opened the door to a spirit of epilepsy.â You understand? The place of weakness was the injury to her brain. Now I said to her, âI believe the spirit has gone out, we need to close the door.â So Lydia and I put hands on her and prayed for the healing of her brain. I was in contact with her for about three years after that, she took no more medication, never had another seizure. But I give that simply as an example of a moment or a place of weakness.
And the last one is sinful acts or habits. If you persist in a certain sinful habit, you can be sure that sooner or later it will become demonic. To give an example of a sinful act, I had to pray for a young woman once who had gone to see the film The Exorcist. She knew she shouldnât go. She went and something entered her. She had to come confess as a sin she had gone on territory that was forbidden and then she was delivered. Or a person may go to a pornographic movie and some kind of sex demon will enter, a demon of lust. But you wonât get delivered until you confess the sin that opened the way for the demon, you understand?
All right. Now we come to what is the center of the whole thing. How to be delivered. This is what all of us need to know. And Iâm going to give you a list of simple basic steps. I donât say you have to follow all these steps, but Iâve observed that these are the things that are relevant.
Number one, be humble. Okay? Now youâll see why I say that when I write out number two.
Be honest. Understand it takes humility to be honest. I tell people donât call your problem by some fancy psychiatric name, call it what it really is. Call a spade a spade and not an agricultural implement. All right. If itâs lust, call it lust. If itâs hatred, call it hatred. I say to women, call it by the same name youâd call it in your husband and youâve got the right name. But that takes humility. All right? You wonât face the truth unless you first humble yourself. And remember, the Bible always puts on us the responsibility for humility. It always says humble yourself. Donât pray to God to make you humble because heâll humiliate you. Then youâll have to be humble. But itâs your decision.
Like this, you see. If you are seeking deliverance there may come a moment where you have to choose between two things. Your dignity and your deliverance. Now if dignity is more important to you than deliverance, you know what your problem is? Pride, thatâs right. I always think of this doctorâs wife in the State of Alabama. She was a kind of Southern style lady. She heard me teaching and she came up and said, âMr. Prince, if I understand what youâre saying, if Iâm to be delivered I may scream.â I said, âIt could happen.â She said, âI was brought up that a lady doesnât scream in public.â âWell,â I said, âsuppose you were in a river drowning and you were going down for the third time and you thought there might be someone on the bank who could rescue you, would you be too ladylike to scream?â Well see, thatâs an option, you can choose to drown or you can be a little less ladylike for five minutes. My advice to people is let your dignity go because itâll come back. And when youâve been delivered youâll be much more dignified, you wonât have this thing inside you struggling all the time. Okay. But I really say humility is the key.
All right. The next is confess your faith in Christ because he is the high priest of our confession. When we confess right he comes to our help. But if we donât make the right confession, we donât get him on the scene.
Number four, confess any known sin. All right, Iâll write ditto there, any known sin and I want to put but I donât have room on the line, by yourself or your ancestors. In some cases you have to identify yourself with the family problem and say itâs my problem, I confess it, I ask for forgiveness. Even though it was your grandmother or your aunt or whoever it was.
Number five, repent of all sins. Without repentance, remember what we have been saying all along, without repentance there is no deliverance. And Iâll put here Proverbs 28:13, which says:
âHe that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.â (KJV)
Do you want mercy? You got to do two things. Confess and forsake. Thatâs old fashioned but then God hasnât changed, you understand? A lot of people have the attitude if I donât confess my sin, God will never know about it. Really, Iâve met many people. Thatâs a mistake, God knows already. Heâs not asking you to confess in order that he can find out, heâs asking you to confess in order that he can have mercy on you, understand? And let me tell you some other good news, God is unshockable. You can tell him the worst about yourself, he already knows it and he still loves you. But if you hold it in, youâve held your problem in.
All right. Number six, break with occult, curses [which weâre going to deal with tonight, I canât go into that in detail now] and secret societies. Okay. Especially Free Masonry. That is a source of the most tremendous demonic problems. And it goes from generation to generation, including retardation, crippling, all sorts of problems. All right. Really, thatâs part of repentance, but Iâve put it up separately.
Number seven, forgive others. All of them, everybody. Don Basham and I had a friend years back who was a veterinarian. He needed deliverance but he didnât get delivered till he had forgiven the whole IRS. That was his problem. None of you have that problem, Iâm sure. Jesus said in Mark 11:25, When you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anybody. That leaves out nothing and nobody. Itâs your responsibility to forgive. You donât wait till they humble themselves and say I really am sorry for what I did. You forgive them not for their sake primarily, but for your sake. I tell people forgiving others is not being super-spiritual or sentimental, it is really simply enlightened self interest. Thatâs all it is.
And number eight, one beautiful brief word. Expel. Weâll come to that a little later, but passivity doesnât get you anywhere. Youâve got to take action. The simplest action you can take is to begin to breathe out. In both Hebrew and Greek, the word for spirit is the same word for breath. I remember a little boy, or rather the mother came to me, asked me to pray for her little boy who was about four or five. I said, âWhatâs his problem?â She said, âAllergies.â âWhat kind of allergies?â âFood allergies.â âWhatâs he allergic to?â âTell me what he isnât allergic to.â âWell,â I said, âIâm going to deal with it as an evil spirit, is that okay?â She said fine. I said, âI need to talk to your son.â Now I told him in very simple child language, said, âThereâs a bad spirit like a breath inside you. Iâm going to command it to come out in the name of Jesus. I want you to let it go. So when I say, âIn the name of Jesus,â you blow it out.â So he was like a little soldier, prayed for him, said âin the name of Jesusâ and he went (blowing sounds). That was all. So I thought Did it work or didnât it? So I just had to leave it with the Lord. But three days later the lady came back and said pray for me! I said what is your problem? She said allergies. I said tell me first what happened to your son. âWell,â she said, âhe marched straight home, went to the refrigerator, opened it and sampled everything in it and nothing did him any harm!â See how simple. Except you become like a little child you donât get these benefits.
All right. Now thatâs how to get them out. Thatâs the most important piece of information. And even if you donât understand how they came in, what matters is to know how to get them out. Thank you.
Now weâre going on to the problem area, why some people are not delivered. Okay. This is mainly for those who are going to be in this ministry. Why some are not delivered. Basically itâs for not meeting the conditions. Listen, deliverance is not so much a test of your spiritual power, itâs a test of whether the people have met the conditions. Donât focus on yourself. Focus on getting the people to meet the conditions. Because once theyâve met the conditions they will be delivered. You may feel yourself a little midget, but youâre representing a victorious Christ.
All right. Number one, lack of repentance. Okay. Thereâs no guarantee to anybody who is not willing to repent.
Number two, lack of desperation. I say deliverance is for the desperate. I often say to people, when you come back and are desperateâdesperation, thank you. Lack of desperation. Summed up in one word, passivity. Youâll find that particularly in people whoâve been in Oriental cults. They encourage to kind of putting your mind in neutral, you understand? And many times youâve got to do something to prod them. I want to say again, Christ has given us authority over evil spirits but not over the human will. You cannot will for the other person. The person has to will for himself.
Number three, wrong motives. All right. The scripture Iâll give you there is James 4:3, which says you ask and you receive not because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your lusts. We are not delivered just to get off the hook, you understand? A lot of people would like to get off the hook. Weâre delivered in order to serve the Lord. People who come merely to get off the hook do not qualify for deliverance.
Number four, (you better go down this list and check yourself while weâre going through it) self-centeredness. All right. Desire for attention. Some people donât get delivered because they wouldnât be the center of attention any longer, you understand? You find some of the chronic cases of deliverance never want to get delivered because theyâre poor, neglected, rejected people, this is the only time they get the center of the stage. One thing youâll notice about all people affected by demons is in some way or other they are self-centered. In fact, self-centeredness is an invitation to demon attention. Sometimes you just have to let the person go and say, listen, youâve heard enough. You can do it for yourself and if you donât do it for yourself, nobody else is going to do it for you.
Number five, failure to break with the occult, etc. And that includes getting rid of occult objects. Okay? Such as little Buddhas or charms, or horseshoes, anything that savors of superstition is demonic. Moses told Israel if you bring an accursed thing into your house, you become accursed like the thing. Most Christians need to go through their homes and clean out a lot of rubbish. I make it a principle, I donât want to keep in my house anything that dishonors Jesus Christ or honors Satan.
One of the big steps in my life was I had inherited from my grandfather four beautiful tapestry Chinese dragons. Imperial dragons with five claws, not four. And they were beautiful. And they were not actually objects of worship, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought the dragon really is a picture of Satan, I cannot afford to advertise him on the walls of my home. So I took them down and got rid of them and I would have to say I was not planning it, I wasnât in need, I didnât have any such motivation in mind but I just observed. I prospered in a totally new measure once I got the dragons out of my house.
All right. Number six, failure to sever evil, soulish relationships. Sometimes you have to break some relationships if theyâre evil, if theyâre binding, if theyâreâI donât know what word, I want to say the word gooey. A kind of sloppy sentimentality that isnât honest.
All right. Number seven, under a curse. Now weâre going to deal with that tonight so Iâm not going to get involved in it now. But some people are under a curse and will not be delivered or healed till the curse is broken.
Number eight, (Iâm running out of space) failure to confess a specific sin. The one obvious example is abortion. Anyone who has procured an abortion deliberately, in Godâs sight, is guilty of murder. And that has to be confessed specifically as murder. Now this isnât my decision, Iâm not making the rules, you understand? Iâm just interpreting them. I tried to get people delivered, you could get the demon up as far as the throat and it would not come out. Stop and check. I remember a girl of about sixteen, her mother brought her. Eventually I said, listen, thereâs something youâre going to have to confess before this will come out. And she eventually confessed she had an abortion, her mother didnât know about it. The moment she confessed, it came out. It was so sweet to see the mother and daughter fall in one anotherâs arms and receive one another. But that, in my opinion, is a unvarying principle.
Number nine which is, this is a controversial one, not separated by guess what? Whatâs the separating ordinance in the New Testament? Baptism, thatâs right. Water baptism. All right. Remember, Israel were delivered in Egypt by the blood of the lamb. But they were separated from Egypt by the water of the Red Sea. And it was the water that prevented the Egyptians following them. They could follow as far as the water. People that are not willing to be water baptized in my opinion, do not qualify to stay free. This is not an option. Iâm not dealing with this as a denominational issue, Iâm simply stating thatâs the way it is. If you can get God to agree, fine. But Iâm not going to be a party to that agreement.
All right. Ten, now this is a very complicated one. Part of a larger battle requiring corporate action. Okay? Some people are what I call Satanâs battlefield. And he will not let them go, not because of what they are themselves, but because of what they stand for. I donât have time to go into this. But there are people for whom the whole body has to take the responsibility. To give you an example, there was a young man I knew who had Hodgkinâs disease. You know itâs incurable, itâs just a question of time. Well, he was part of a fellowship which, when the fellowship flourished he did fine, he wasnât sick. If anything went wrong with the fellowship spiritually, he began to get sick. And ultimately Satan got right into the fellowship, split it open and destroyed it, and he died. You understand? His physical condition was an accurate barometer of the spiritual condition of the fellowship he was in. There are people like that. You donât have the choice.
All right. One last topic, how to keep your deliverance. Okay. I usually donât have time to teach on this. Let me say that I have a series of six cassettes called âDeliverance and Demonologyâ which are available to all of you. This final cassette is âSeven Ways to Keep Your Deliverance.â So if I donât cover it in detailâanyhow.
Number one, make Jesus Lord, okay? Normally at the end of a deliverance service Iâll tell the people that have been delivered, donât you go out of this auditorium until youâve made Jesus Lord of every area of your life. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 12 when the unclean spirit goes out of a man? He walks through dry places seeking rest. Then he says, I will return to my house. What does he mean by my house? The person he occupied. And when he comes he finds there three things. Empty, swept and set in order. Whatâs the problem? No problem with having the house swept, no problem with having the house set in order. Whatâs the problem then? Empty. Unoccupied, no one else has been allowed to move in. Thereâs only one person strong enough to keep the devil out of your life. You know who that is? Jesus. Every area Jesus occupies is safe. But any area where he is not Lord is unsafe. Have you ever driven through the United States about six or seven oâclock in the evening looking for a motel to spend the night? Youâre looking for one word in red neon letters, what is it? Vacancy. Thatâs right. And when you see that, you know you can get in. Well, in the spiritual world, every area of your personality which is not totally given to the Lordship of Jesus has got that red neon letter sign, vacancy. And the enemy knows heâs welcome. And when he comes in heâs liable to bring with him seven others worse than himself.
All right. Number two. Iâm going to just put briefly, garment of praise. The scripture says God has given us a garment of praise in place of the spirit of heaviness, is that right? You see, when you are praising the Lord, youâre bothering the devil more than he can bother you. Let me relate this briefly.
Years back before I had gotten to this ministry of deliverance, I was just pastoring an ordinary sort of Pentecostal church in London, we had two Russian Jewesses who had marvelously escaped from Russia, being saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit. And my first wife and I were praying with them and they really believed in praising the Lord. I mean, they were not reticent. They said in Russia the Baptists praise the Lord much louder than the Pentecostals outside Russia. And so there we were having a good time with the Lord and there was a ring at the bell and when I went to answer it there was one of my lady church members there leading her husband by the hand. And she said, âThis is my husband, heâs just come out of prison, he has a demon.â Well that was unwelcome news to me because I didnât know what to do about demons. But I couldnât refuse the man so I took the couple up where we were all praying. And I said, âWeâll pray.â You know, thatâs a safe coverall, itâs always spiritual to pray. Sometimes it doesnât produce any results but at least you sound good! So we went on praying and these Russian sisters, they didnât care about anybody, they were praising the Lord. So this man sidled up to me and he said, âThereâs too much noise, Iâm going!â Well, I didnât premeditate my answer but I gave him the right answer. I said, âListen, the one who doesnât like the noise is the devil because weâre praising Jesus. Youâve got two options. If you go now, the devil will go with you. If you stay, the devil will go without you.â He said, âIâll stay.â And about ten minutes later without anything further happening that I was aware of he came up to me and said, âIt just left. I felt it leave my throat.â Well that was such a demonstration to me how much the devil dislikes the praises of Jesus. If you put on the garment of praise, heâll stay away from you because youâll embarrass him more than he can embarrass you.
Number three, put on the full armor of God. Thatâs not an option. Ephesians 6:14â17, and it starts with 12, thatâs right. Okay. Now thatâs all listed for you, I donât have to tell you all about it.
Number four, live by Godâs word. Matthew 4:4 says what? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. You cannot live by your feelings. Thatâs the most dangerous thing you can do. Youâll be up and down and every time you get a bad mood, youâve opened the door. Thereâs a little list of three Fâs. Fact, Faith, Feeling. Okay. Now you have to keep them in that order. The facts are in the Word of God. Faith believes the facts and feelings fall into line. But if you reverse the order and start living by your feelings, youâve lost your anchor. Youâre like a ship adrift without an anchor.
Number five, submit to God and what else? Resist the devil, thatâs right. Iâll put Satan because itâs shorter to write. Which is James 4:7. Notice which comes first, which do you have to do first? Submit to God. If youâre submitted to God and you then resist the devil, what does the Bible say will happen? He will what? Flee from you. Do you believe that? But a lot of Christians are actually doing the opposite. Theyâre submitting to the devil and resisting God, you see? Really, many.
All right. Number six, Iâll put right fellowship, I donât put in more. It matters what kind of fellowship you have. 1 John 1:7, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, what happens? We have fellowship. If youâre out of fellowship, youâre out of the light. Youâre not protected by the blood. The blood only cleanses in the light. And youâre going to have some kind of fellowship, which is it going to be? With the godly or the ungodly? Paul says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. The fellowship is an acid test of where youâre at in your spiritual life.
Number seven, I donât know how many I got, can I get them all in? I can. Come under discipline. All right. You cannot be a real Christian without being under discipline. Self-discipline, family discipline, governmental discipline, school discipline, church discipline, there are many areas of discipline. But the one who refuses is a rebel. And you know what the Bible says about rebels? 1 Samuel 15:23, rebellion is as witchcraft. The moment you become rebellious you are exposed to the spirit of witchcraft. Okay? Discipline. Did you get that? For many people today itâs a dirty word. It starts with self-discipline, you understand? Most Christians indulge their moods and their whims and their fancies. You are not free to do that. Itâs just as dangerous to do that as it is to indulge your sexual impulses. You are not free to do it.
Number eight, this is the last one. Make Jesus central. All right? Youâll notice it begins and ends with Jesus. And Iâm going to put a scripture there, John 12 what? 31 and 32. Which says, Jesus says:
âNow is the judgment of this world, and now is the prince of this world cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.â (KJV)
Notice the order. When Satan is cast out, what is the next thing to do? Lift up Jesus. Thatâs right. Fill the vacuum with Jesus. The driving out of Satan creates a vacuum. Itâs very important you fill it with the right thing. Focus on Jesus. Do not focus on demons. Donât give the devil too much publicity, he loves it. Demons are real like germs and viruses and other things. We have to acknowledge them, we have to deal with them. But a healthy person doesnât go around thinking all the time about germs and viruses, you understand? Health in a certain sense excludes them. Donât see a demon under every cup and saucer. And if youâre from some old line church or even a less old line church, donât go back, go up to your pastor or rector, stick your finger between his eyes and say you have a demon. It may be true but itâs not the right way to handle the situation.
All right. Now we have done marvelously well with regard to time and I want to end on a very practical note, thank you so much. This is optional, I want you to understand, nobody is compelled. But if there are those of you here this morning, or this afternoon now, who feel that somehow on the basis of what you heard or maybe previous experience, you have a problem. A demonic problem. Thereâs an area in your life in which Jesus is not in control and youâre not in control. You may be in control of ninety percent but thereâs this ten percent. It may be your temper, it may be your mind, it may be your sex life, it may be your relationships with other people, there is an area where you need deliverance. I want to help you. Iâve helped, I think I can say I think with great honesty, hundreds of thousands of people. It works. What Iâm going to offer to do for you, those of you who feel that you want help here, Iâm going to invite you in a few moments to stand and say a prayer. Youâll not be praying to me, youâll be praying to Jesus. Remember, thereâs only one deliverer, whatâs his name? Jesus. If you want deliverance, you have to come to the deliverer, thereâs no alternative. Jesus said, him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. If you come, heâll receive you. Now this is a method that I have employed with large crowds. In Wellington, Old Town Hall just two weeks ago in New Zealand we had at least two thousand people. And it worked for two thousand, it worked dramatically well. I have never seen so many people liberated in such a short space of time. So what I am going to offer to do, now this is an offer, Iâm going to lead you in a prayer in which you will have the opportunity to humble yourself, to come to Jesus and to affirm that youâve met the conditions, you understand? Iâll put in your mouth the words. Youâll renounce the occult and every kind of contact with Satanic power. Youâll forgive every other person who ever harmed you or wronged you. Youâll release yourself from every curse over your life and youâll have to do that in faith without the understanding. And then youâll present yourself to Jesus as a candidate for deliverance. And when youâve said the prayer and met all the conditions, the last thing you say is amen, okay? And when youâve said amen, donât do any more praying. Itâs very religious to pray. Sounds good, but as long as youâre praying, youâre keeping the demons inside. You understand? They canât get out past your prayer. Donât speak in tongues. Speaking in tongues is wonderful but it has the same effect, it keeps the demons inside. Itâs like when the ambulance or the police car goes down the road with its sirens blaring and its lights flashing. Everything else gets off to the side and letâs it go past. Thatâs how demons get out, see? Make way for them. Release them. Let them go out.
Now I said faith without works is dead. I didnât, but the Bible does. Okay? So donât stand there passive when youâve said the prayer waiting for something to happen. Do one very simple thing. Begin to breathe out. Expel. And youâll find if you have a problem, in a short while, it will be more than mere human breath thatâs coming out. Thatâs what youâre after. Now when that happens, you might become undignified, you might not act in a very religious way. If you decide to be dignified and religious, youâll lose what you prayed for. Itâs your option. I suggest you turn loose and get it out. Iâve told people, the devil is no gentleman, he comes in uninvited and he usually has to be kicked out. Kick him out with everything youâve got. Donât spare him. Hate him. Listen, itâs no sin to hate the devil, itâs a sin not to hate the devil. To be passive and indifferent is sinful.
Okay. Those of you who want to say this prayer, would you stand to your feet right now. We donât have more than about three minutes. All right. Now we are praying to Jesus, the deliverer. Not to Brother Prince. And I would like you to say these words, theyâre all taken out of the Bible and what I have taught. Okay?
Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you are the Son of God, and the only way to God. That you died on the cross for my sins, and rose again from the dead. I come to you now for mercy, and for forgiveness. I believe you do forgive me and receive me as your child. And because you receive me, I receive myself as a child of God. And now Lord, you know that special problem that I have. The demonic influences that torment me. Lord, I want to meet your conditions and receive your deliverance. First of all, I forgive every other person who ever harmed me or wronged me. I forgive them all now. Now pause for a moment and quietly name the persons you need to forgive, to yourself. Weâre going on. Lord, I have forgiven all these persons. I have laid down all bitterness, all resentment, all hatred and all rebellion. And I believe you have forgiven me. I thank you for it. I also renounce every contact with Satan, with occult powers, with secret societies, with anything in Satanâs territory. I repent of being on that territory and I turn my back on it now. Also Lord, if thereâs a curse over my life, I thank you that on the cross you were made a curse that I might be redeemed from the curse, and receive the blessing. And I claim that now, released from the curse and entering into the blessing. And now Lord, I want to come against any evil spirit in me that occupies any area of my personality. I want to tell you I hate them. They are my enemies. I will not make peace with them. I will not compromise with them. They will have no more place in me. I turn against them now and in the authority of your name, Jesus, I command them to leave me. I expel them right now in the name of Jesus. Amen.
All right. No more praying. Iâll do the final prayer, you do the letting go. Begin to expel right now in faith.
Now Lord, as your servant and representative here this morning, under the authority of the local leadership I take dominion in Jesusâ name over every evil spirit that has been renounced and I command them to go now in Jesusâ name. Release these people and go from them now in the mighty, all prevailing name of Jesus Christ. I affirm that Jesus Christ is Lord over this gathering. That he has defeated Satan. That he holds the keys of death and of Hades. That all authority has been given unto him in heaven and in earth. Satan, you are subject to us through the name of Jesus. You have to obey us. You have to go from these people. You have no options. The Bible says you must leave, and leave you must, Satan. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Now just get a full deliverance. Release yourself from everything. Once the anointing is here you can get rid of everything and itâs much more difficult to do it when the anointing lifts. Thatâs right, donât bother about other people. Donât hold onto your dignity, itâll come back in a few moments. Thatâs right, thank you Lord. Thank you Father. Thank you Lord Jesus. Praise your holy name. Praise your name Lord. Praise your name. Thank you Lord, amen.
Just stay with it, the devil is stubborn, you be more stubborn. Amen, thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Thank you Father. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord.
Now if you believe youâve been delivered, then start to thank God and remember, before you leave this place, make Jesus Lord.