How To Recognize And Expel Demons

The word “devil” is the translation of a Greek word diaboloswhich is found in the English words diabolic, diabolical; in Spanish diaboloand so on. It means literally the slanderer or the accuser and it’s a title of Satan himself, it’s a title of one person. It is not normally used in the plural. What we are dealing with is not Satan directly, what we are dealing with is correctly called demons or evil spirits. The word demon comes from a Greek word diamonionwhich has a very long history in the Greek language and it means some kind of a spirit being whom the ancients regarded as half divine and half human and who was normally worshiped or propitiated in certain ways. In fact, the majority of pagan religions all through human history have centered around the recognition of demons and attempts to propitiate them or enlist their help or prevent their wrath. More or less, that’s how you can sum it up.

The other phrase that’s used interchangeably in the New Testament is the phrase “evil spirit” or “unclean spirit.” When I say interchangeably, in the synoptic gospels where one writer will use the word “demon” telling the same story about the same incident another synoptic writer will use the word “evil spirit” or “unclean spirit.” These are interchangeable. We are not talking about Satan himself, the prince of the kingdom of darkness. We are not even talking about angels; we are talking about spirit beings. As I understand it, they are not angels. This is not essential for your deliverance to know this but I observe certain distinctions. Angels have their habitat in the heavenlies. Evil spirits are earthbound. Angels apparently have wings and fly. Evil spirits apparently do not have wings and walk. Jesus said the unclean spirits walketh through dry places seeking rest. Angels have bodies of their own and would not feel at home nor have any reason to desire to be inside a human body. Demons or evil spirits are spirits without bodies that intensely crave to be inside bodies. Primarily they would choose to be inside a human body but rather than be without a body to inhabit we find in the gospels that they would prefer to go into the bodies of pigs.

Without a body they cannot express their nature. For instance, a demon of blasphemy must have a tongue to blaspheme through. A demon of doubt must have a mind to doubt through. A demon of lust must have a body and physical members to lust through. A demon of alcohol must have the appropriate physical organs to crave and to consume alcohol through. They are tied up to the need of a body to express themselves.

Where demons came from is a matter about which I have opinions after many years but it isn’t important. Jesus dealt with demons by the thousands but he never stopped to explain in his public teaching where they came from. The important thing for you is not to know where they come from, it’s to know how to get rid of them. That the Bible tells you clearly.

In regard to these there are certain phrases used in the New Testament and I’ll enumerate them briefly. The three main phrases used for a person who is in some way under the influence or power or control of a demon or an evil spirit, these are the following phrases. First of all, to have an unclean spirit or a demon. Secondly, to be in an unclean spirit or a demon where I think modern English would speak about being under the influence of. Thirdly, there is a Greek verb “to be demonized.” The Greek verb, if you are familiar with Greek, is daimonzomaiand it means “I am demonized.” It’s directly formed from the noun for demon. Demon in Greek, diamonion, to be demonized, daimonzomai. See, it’s just a verb formed out of a noun.

In the King James Version the verb that I have spoken about, daimonzomaiis normally translated to be possessed with devils. This translation is a disaster. It has misled more people than it will ever be possible to calculate because there is nothing in the original Greek—and I challenge any Greek scholar to say to the contrary—there is nothing in the original Greek to justify the use of the word possessed. This is what has misled millions of people. You see, the word possessed in the English language suggests total ownership. If I possess my Bible then it is entirely mine and every page in the Bible belongs to me. There’s no shared ownership, no one has a claim over 15 pages in my Bible; I possess it, it is my Bible. People say can a Christian be demon possessed? The answer is obviously no. A Christian essentially is one who belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. If he belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ the devil cannot own him, that is absolutely clear. But, it doesn’t mean that a Christian cannot have areas in his life which are still under the control of evil spirits. He may belong by the choice of his will and the surrender of his will in salvation or the new birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. Though he has given himself generally to the Lord Jesus it may well be that there are areas within him where the Holy Spirit and the nature of Christ are not in effective control. You say, “Brother Prince, how do you know that?” I’ve been a Christian over 30 years and I know it from my own personal experience.

I was baptized in the Holy Spirit about 30 years ago, having found the Lord about two weeks previously in an Army barrack room. I had a marvelous conversion, a total transformation. But many, many years later there were still areas in my life where the Lord Jesus was not in effective control. How many of you would say that’s pretty normal? Thank you. I just want you to see I’m not talking to people from another world and I’m not talking about abnormal people.

Let me put it to you this way. I’m not jesting and I’m not making fun of you at all. I want you to be serious, I’m serious. Let me ask you each one this question. How many of you would say by raising your hand, “Brother Prince, I believe I have the Holy Spirit”? Praise the Lord. Now I’m not making fun of you. If you put your hand up I will not laugh at you. How many of you would say by the same token, “Brother Prince, I’m totally controlled by the Holy Spirit”? Praise God. Thank you. Well, there was one person that raised his hand. I praise God for that, I don’t question it. Every Christian should be in that condition. But we all know that most Christians aren’t as yet.

Lots of people think the Holy Spirit will only start a work in you and bless you when you’re perfect. Isn’t that silly. When you’re perfect you won’t need it. The idea that you’ve got to be perfect before the Holy Spirit will move in and do things for you is like sending young people to a university and the professors come to them and say, “Now when you young people graduate, we’ll start to teach you.” When do you need teaching? Before you graduate. When we get to heaven we’ll have graduated. Then I don’t know that we’ll need all that teaching. We need the Holy Spirit to help us now in our weaknesses. You know what Romans 8:26 says, “The Spirit helpeth our infirmities.” The places where we’re weak, the places where we’re having problems is just where we need the Holy Spirit.

Likewise, evil spirits, though they cannot own a Christian, can move in or be in residence and occupy certain areas of their personality. To illustrate it from personal experience, I was a full gospel preacher for a good many years but I had various internal problems. I’ll mention only one, it’s a common one, it was depression. I was subject to fits of depression. They would come down over me and overshadow me and press me in like a great, dark, moist cloud settling down over me, shutting me in. I would have a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness. It would be others can but you can’t. I would be aware that I would carry this pressure around with me where I went. And particularly, in my own home. It was very, very embarrassing to me to think that I was subjecting my wife and children to the pressure that I was under. I tried every means I knew of to get rid of this depression. I fasted, I prayed, I can’t think of anything I didn’t do. The embarrassing thing was the more I fasted the worse it got. In fact, one of our daughters said to me one day, “Daddy, I wish you’d stop fasting because you’re worse when you fast.” Well, that’s embarrassing for a preacher. It was quite true because what fasting did was bring the thing out into the open. It didn’t get it out but it forced it into the open.

Another thing I noticed was when I really wanted to serve Christ to the utmost, that was when the pressure was worst. But when I was content to kind of go along with the stream and not make too much efforts against the kingdom of Satan the pressure let up. I could not find the solution to this until one day reading in Isaiah 61:3 I read this phrase. “The garment of praise in place of the spirit of heaviness.” When I read that phrase “the spirit of heaviness” I suddenly saw that’s your problem. It’s not a mental attitude, it’s not a psychological attitude; it’s a person, a spirit that knows you. Immediately I saw a whole host of truth. I saw that the same spirit had troubled my father most of the time that I knew him. It was a kind of family ghost that followed us down from generation to generation. I could trace its activity. I realized that it understood me, it knew my thoughts and it definitely planned its strategy against me. It had one supreme aim, to prevent me serving Christ effectively.

I will tell you this with regard to demons. Their headquarters are in Satan’s kingdom and they have two main orders in relation to you. Number one, to keep you from Christ. If they fail in that their second order is to stop you serving Christ effectively. If they can’t stop you from being a Christian then they’ll stop you from being an effective Christian.

You will find out that this makes sense and explains a whole lot of things in your experience. For instance, why can you stay awake till midnight watching the TV but fall asleep before 10 o’clock if you read your Bible? Because the demon of slumber which is referred to both in Old Testament and in New doesn’t mind you watching the late night show with Johnny Carson but does mind you getting to know the word of God. Or, you take the case we had of the neighbors with the pestilential little girl of about 3 and we used to watch. Friday night when they went out grocery shopping she’d dress up and walk out all smiling and sweet. Sunday morning when they wanted to go to the full gospel Sunday School and church she’d lie on the floor and kick her legs in the air and scream. The spirit in that little girl didn’t mind the grocery store but hated the full gospel church. If you will work out a lot of things that happen in your life—I sometimes tell people in meetings like this if you find an absolutely abnormal resentment for Brother Prince rising in you right now, be on your guard. There are many good reasons why you could resent me but if I’ve done nothing to you and it suddenly rises up in you, remember it’s the devil trying to stop you from coming to me for help. Behind these things, if they are demonic, there’s always an intelligence that plots and plans and works out how to frustrate you, defeat you, keep you miserable, make you sick and, if possible, kill you. That’s their objective.

Don’t forget what Jesus said about the devil. “The thief cometh not but for to steal, to kill, to destroy.” That’s why he’s there. If you tolerate him, that’s what he’s doing. Don’t forget. If you tolerate Satan in any area of your life whatever, he’s there to steal, to take away the things that are rightfully yours; your peace of mind, your innocence, your health, your right relationships with your family and neighbors, your prosperity, your success. All these good things that are yours in Christ the devil will seek to steal from you.

Secondly, he’s there to kill you physically. Many Christians every year die murdered. Murdered by cancer and tumors and all sorts of things. They don’t live out their natural, normal appointed life span; they’re murdered by the devil.

Then the third thing he does to the unsaved—not to the believer—is to torment them eternally after death. That’s his program. Jesus warned us, he said be very clear why the devil comes, what his aims are. They’re stated for you: steal, kill, destroy. If you make friends with him you know the kind of person you’ve made friends with.

Now, the next question is what are the typical marks of demon activity in a person? We all know that we have a nature—at least, I trust we all know—that is prone to sin. We’re born rebels. I hope you know that. Ephesians 2:2, “We are all by nature the children of wrath because we are the children of disobedience.” Adam never begat any children until he was a rebel. Every child that ever was begotten of Adam and Adam’s descendants was a rebel by birth. This is not my purpose to teach this this afternoon, it’s another message. We are born with a rebellious nature. You ladies never had to teach any of your children to be naughty, did you? No. But you had a problem teaching them to be good, in most cases. So, we have a rebellious nature. We tend to desire to do the wrong thing.

The remedy for the rebellious nature is not deliverance. The remedy for the rebellious nature is the cross. Our old man, that old rebellious Adamic nature, is crucified with Christ. If you’re just dealing with the Adamic nature, don’t come to Brother Prince and ask him to cast the old Adam out because it isn’t scriptural. It can’t be done. The only remedy for the old Adam is the cross. “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.” This is the basic solution beyond all solutions, it’s the cross.

But, in addition to the old Adamic nature multitudes of people have the compounded problem of what I call the vultures that fasten on the carcass. The carcass: the old man; the vultures: the evil spirits that fasten their claws and their beaks into that rotting old carcass and feed upon it. If that’s your situation, in addition to the cross you may need the ministry of deliverance. The remedy for evil spirits is not to crucify them, you cannot crucify an evil spirit. It is to cast them out.

On the other hand, you cannot cast out the old man, you have to crucify him. See, the remedies correspond to the needs. You cannot mix up the remedy for the opposite need. Multitudes of people have been struggling manfully to crucify demons. It just doesn’t work. The Bible says “reckon the old man dead.” That’s scriptural but it doesn’t say reckon demons dead because they aren’t dead and they’ll never die.

Now, naturally the question arises, “Brother Prince, if I have this recurrent, persistent, disturbing, frustrating problem, how do I know whether it’s just the old man or whether it’s an evil spirit exploiting the old man? Well, on the blackboard I have written up there in the middle “Activities of Demons.” I have learned by experience that these are the main ways in which demons operate and manifest their presence, the things they habitually do. We’ll glance at them. Number one, they entice. This is temptation. The Bible says every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. There’s something within each one of us called lust, perverted desire; but there’s an agent that plays upon the lust. It’s like the mouse, there’s something in the mouse that likes cheese. But to get the mouse into the trap there’s got to be someone that places the cheese just where it will cause the mouse to be caught.

The enticer, the agent, is the demon. He plays upon lust, perverted desires within you and me. One of the basic activities of demons is enticement. Personally, I don’t believe that Satan comes down from the heavenlies every time you and I need to be tempted. I believe he’s got a very well trained multitudinous army doing the job for him against us all the time. He says, “There’s a young man just going into the ministry. He could be a danger. Demons number 23AZ and number 537X, get on his tail. Get him interested in some smart divorcee who’s got about three children and a rotten past and get him side-tracked because otherwise he’s going to do damage.” See, that’s the piece of cheese that’s baiting the mousetrap. Those evil spirits are playing upon something called sexual lust inside a young man. That’s just an example.

The next activity is to enslave. Let’s look at this particularly in reference to sex. First of all, in regard to sex I want to say sex is not evil—contrary to the opinion of most Christians—it’s good. God created man sexual and after he created everything he saw that everything he had created was very good, including sex. The church has got a totally wrong, negative attitude toward sex. However, sex is also very powerful in most persons and, therefore, the devil is smart enough to know that if he can get control in the sex area he’s got a very important measure of control in that person.

The next thing I want to say about sex is it is no sin to be tempted. Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. So you can be tempted without sinning.

Further, if you are tempted and sin sexually with a wrong act, that does not necessarily mean you need deliverance from a sex demon. All you need to do is repent, confess to Jesus, receive forgiveness and cleansing and there you are back again, you’re all right. But, if this thing becomes enslaving, if no matter how many times you repent and confess and get forgiven and cleansed you’re back again doing it, then it’s a demon. I believe every form of sex perversion is demonic in its origin.

The third thing demons do is torment. They are the tormentors. In Matthew 18 there’s a parable told about a servant who was forgiven six million dollars and refused to forgive a fellow servant ten dollars. I’m putting it in modern values. When the master heard about this unforgiving servant he said, “Thou wicked servant.” He was very wrath and he commanded him to be delivered to the tormentors ’till he should pay the uttermost farthing. The last verse of that parable says “So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye do not from your hearts forgive every man their brother his trespass.” What’s “so likewise”? To deliver you to the tormentors. Who are the tormentors? The demons.

God awakened me to this fact because I’ve had multitudes of Christians, uncounted multitudes, coming to me in torment. I said to myself, “God, how could that be? They’re your children. How do they get in the hands of the tormentors?” God said, “I put them there because they refused to forgive another believer.” So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you.

There are various areas of torment. There’s spiritual torment. The demon of fear is probably the chief tormentor. The apostle John says, “Fear hath torment.” There’s a natural fear which is perfectly normal. There’s the fear of the Lord which is reverence and respect and awe for God which is clean and endureth forever. But there’s another kind of fear which is demonic, it’s abnormal, it’s unnatural, it’s excessive and it’s tormenting. There’s a tormentor.

There’s another tormentor and it’s condemnation, condemned all the time. The Bible says there is no condemnation for them who are Christ Jesus.

Another tormentor is doubt.

Then there’s physical torment. Cancer, arthritis and so on.

Number four, the fourth main activity is to drive or compel. The Gadarene demoniac was driven out of habitation of man into the area of the tombs. Anything that is compulsive suggests the activity of a demon. Compulsive eating, compulsive talking, compulsive sleeping. There are many areas. All these things are normal. It’s normal to talk, normal to eat and normal to sleep. But when it becomes driving, compulsive, nagging, you can suspect a demon.

Number five, defiling. Demons are unclean. All evil spirits are unclean. Many people have their mind and their conscience defiled by demons. Their minds are filled with thoughts and suggestions that they resent and hate but they come crowding in almost endlessly. They’re defiled in their minds by evil suggestions.

Then number six, harass. They just get at you, they disturb you, they trouble you. Just the moment you’re going to do something for God they begin to get on you. My family learned years ago when I was about to preach, stop talking to him because he’s got everything he needs to keep calm before that message. As a matter of fact, since I’ve had deliverance from three particular spirits which came in different phases: depression, anger and embarrassment, I can be perfectly relaxed before I preach. But that’s an achievement. It didn’t come in one day and it isn’t true of all preachers, believe me. Any pastor’s wives here, don’t put your hands up but you know what I’m talking about.

The normal preacher is a bundle of nerves before he gets into the pulpit. He’s harassed.

Now, we want to deal with what I call the city within. The order on the blackboard is different from the order of speaking but that won’t bother you, will it? I have said that though a Christian belongs to the Lord there may be areas within him where the Lord is not in control. The Bible compares the inner nature of man to a city. Proverbs 16:32:

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit better than he that taketh the city.

Ruling your own spirit is better than taking a city in war.

And the other one, Proverbs 25:28:

He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.

No defense, he can’t keep anything out. Any demon that the devil sends against him can come in and settle in that city because it has no protection.

Many drug addicts are like that. Persistent dope addiction makes a person inwardly like a city broken down and without walls. Everything will come in one after another. You’ll find most persistent drug addicts not merely need deliverance from the drugs like heroin, they need deliverance from deception, hatred, resentment, rebellion, sex perversion and all sorts of other things because they’ve lost the ability to keep anything out of that inner city within them.

There are other people besides drug addicts that have become like a city that is broken down and without walls. My purpose in speaking is to bring out this illustration of the city that’s within each one of us. The city I always use to illustrate this is one which I lived, Chicago. The mayor of Chicago is Richard J. Daley and many people feel he’s doing a good job as mayor. But, though Richard J. Daley is duly elected mayor, everybody who knows Chicago knows there are quite a lot of areas in Chicago where Richard J. Daley is not in control. There are some areas in Chicago where even the police have to go two at a time in daylight. There are other areas of Chicago—and they include certain areas of the political life of the city—which are run by the Mafia although Daley is the duly elected mayor.

This is like a Christian. You’ve elected Jesus Christ, he’s mayor, he’s in the mayor’s chamber but you’ve still got the Mafia running around somewhere inside. As a matter of fact, the Mafia actually is a very vivid picture of demon activity because demons regularly operate in gangs, they do not operate singly. So much so that I’ve learned that if I meet one member of a gang, to look for the others almost instantly. For instance, let’s take a few. You have the case of depression, fear, loneliness, self-pity, despair. Do you know the next one? Suicide, that’s right. When you find that group you it’s only a question of time if suicide hasn’t come in. Each one opens the way for the next.

Or, you can take anger, violence. And the next one, murder.

Bear this in mind. Demons do not come in necessarily because you’ve committed the thing, they come in to make you commit the thing. For instance, the demon of suicide obviously doesn’t come in because you’ve committed suicide but it comes in to make you commit suicide. The demon of murder does not come in to because you’ve committed murder, it comes in to make you commit murder. Lots of people have said to me in horror when I’ve called the demon of murder out of them, “Brother Prince, I’ve never committed murder.” I say, “No, but that demon came in with the intention of making you commit murder somewhere further along the line. As long as you had him in you were always in a dangerous position. Because, in a sudden moment of anger, who knows what you would have done?” How many people you read about in the newspaper commit murder and when they’re charged with it they say, “I don’t know what made me do it.” No, they don’t but the devil does. He had that demon waiting for maybe 15 years ’till he got that man to a place where he was drunk and somebody insulted him or ran off with his wife and then the demon of murder went into top gear and said, “Now is my opportunity.”

Other people have the demon of adultery who have not committed adultery but it’s there pushing them into it.

Let’s take briefly the main areas in the city. I could illustrate this from Chicago. You have The Loop with the businesses. A little further west you have The Banks. You go a little south from the center of Chicago and you have the depots, the warehouses. Go further south you have a residential area which is basically Negro. Go back to The Loop and go west and you have an area which is primarily Polish. Go back to The Loop and go north and you have an area which is primarily Jewish and then another area which is primarily Swedish. You go back to the suburbs with their different characteristic levels of social success and prestige and so on. Every area of the city has its own distinctive characteristic occupations and inhabitants.

This is like the city within you. It’s divided up into areas, each with its own characteristic inhabitants. I’m going briefly through this list and I’m not going to dwell on any. I would say the first main area is emotions, attitudes and relationships. And for every negative attitude, emotion and relationship there exists the corresponding demon. Resentment, hatred, rebellion, fear, depression, loneliness, self-pity, envy, jealousy, pride and a whole host of others. There’s a demon for each on. The fact that you feel envy every now and then doesn’t mean you have the demon of envy as I’ve said. But when it becomes compulsive, when it is persistent, when it is beginning to occupy a sort of major part of your life, then it’s a demon.

The commonest, I would say, is fear. I say about 1 in 5 persons need deliverance from the spirit of fear alone.

As I said already, they go in gangs. Find one and you can pick out the others. They go in succession. For instance, the problem of multitudes of young people in America today is this: resentment [always against their parents], hatred, rebellion. When rebellion enters, first of all, it’s directed towards their parents, then the church, then school, then the government, then God. It’s more or less that way. This explains what’s happened to multitudes of young people. I would like to say that in most cases it’s the fault of the parents. But it’s the problem of the children. I would like to say to anybody who has problems as a result of their parents wrong treatment, remember it isn’t your parent that’s bothered so much as you.

I was talking to a girl a couple of days ago whose father had molested her sexually and so on. I was trying to urge her to forgive her father and she was finding it a hard job. I said, “Remember, he’s ruined the first years of your life. If you go on hating him he’s going to ruin the rest of your life. Do you want him to do that?”

I remember talking to a woman once who said to me her husband had run off after 15 years of marriage with another woman and left her with the kids. I said, “Are you going to forgive your husband?” She said, “Why? He’s ruined 15 years of my life.” I said, “Do you want him to ruin the rest? As long as you go on hating and resenting him, he’s ruining your life. He’s not suffering one quarter as much as you are.”

Remember, in resentment it’s not the one who’s resented that suffers, it’s the one who resents. You know, when a man has ulcers the question they ask is not what the man’s eating, it’s what’s eating the man. Resentment just eats people up from inside. Don’t get eaten away inside.

Then there’s the realm of the mind, the thoughts. There are certain specific characteristic demons. Doubt, unbelief, indecision, procrastination [putting things off], compromise; these are mental. Very, very real, very powerful. Many people have had unbelief injected into them by the seminary, by the church. They’ve been just fed on unbelief.

Compromise is a remarkably powerful demon. A Lutheran minister came to me once, he had the baptism in the Holy Spirit but he said, “I need deliverance.” He had a problem with homosexuality. Another minister and I prayed with him and he was delivered but he said, “I’m not fully free.” I commanded the next spirit to name itself and it said compromise. I was astonished. I said, “Have you had a problem with compromise?” He said, “All my life since I was a boy I’ve never been able to make a clear cut commitment on anything.” When we commanded that spirit to come out of him it was so powerful it threw that man around like a rubber ball.

There’s a lady here and I’m not in any way going to indicate who she is. She wouldn’t mind if I did, actually. She’ll remember she had the demon of forgetfulness. When I was casting that out it spoke out of her and said, “I’m not coming out, I’m locked in her brain.” These are the mental demons and there are others but I’m just giving you a sample.

Then there’s the demons that specifically relate to the tongue. Blasphemy. Any blasphemer has a demon. That’s one sufficient evidence. Lying, unclean talk. And do you know another one? Gossip. The gossip demon has ruined more churches maybe than the sex demons put together. If you are like a carrion bird feeding on the bad traits in other people, you have a gossip demon. Some so called prayer meetings are just outings for gossip demons. I’m sure they lick their lips with expectation when the prayer day rolls around every week. “Oh, sister, did you hear about Mrs. So-and-So? She really needs prayer. Yak, yak, yak.” How much prayer does she get? How much good does it do her?

Then there’s the area of sex. As I’ve already said, sex is good, not evil but it’s powerful and if the devil can move in and grab that area, then he’s got a major measure of control over your personality. Something that will drive you, force you, enslave you. My personal conviction is every form of sex perversion is demonic. That, again, is sufficient evidence. Any form of homosexuality—and there are many different forms—in my opinion, is the manifestation of a demon. I have seen homosexuals of all shades delivered when it has been dealt with as a demon. There was a man in Chicago—and again I won’t mention his name but he wouldn’t mind—He’d been a homosexual for many years. When I preached on this, ultimately he received deliverance but he said to our daughter later, “I never got deliverance until I was willing to face the fact that it was a demon and I had to deal with it that way.”

Another demon in the sex area which is tremendously common—and I know this doesn’t sound good for a preacher but I’m going to tell you nevertheless—is masturbation. I know that doctors and psychologists say it’s harmless and it’s a safe outlet and so on. Well, it’s demonic. Again, a person may have a fall, a slip, repent, confess, be forgiven and cleansed and that’s it. But when it becomes enslaving, it’s demonic. I’ve dealt with many married persons, both men and women, that were still enslaved by the demon of masturbation years after marriage. I was dealing with one last week. A married man with a child. I said, “Have you ever had a problem with masturbation?” He said, “Yes, and I still have.” I don’t know whether to say this or not but I will. I can say it now and I couldn’t say it later. Frequently when you’re dealing with people who need deliverance you’ll find if you watch them that their fingers become stiff and distorted. Often they’ll complain of a tingling in their fingers. Never have I found this to be anything but masturbation. I’ve dealt with hundreds of cases. As soon as I see those symptoms I know that’s what I’m dealing with. In many cases that evil power has to be driven out specifically out of the fingers.

I remember another instance of power in fingers. I had a deliverance service some years back and a collective deliverance prayer. I didn’t know the results—in many cases the people came forward, I prayed and then the service closed. But a woman a few days later said, “You know, I’m a mother with three children and I love my children but I have the most intensive compulsion to spank them for unreasonable things. When I came forward in the deliverance service I felt that evil power leaving my hands. Now I have no urge to spank my children.” See, the Bible says we’re to yield our members as instruments of righteousness unto God. But sometimes the devil has got there first and he’s using our members as instruments of sin and then we have to drive out his power.

Then we have the area of addictions. Addictions are appetites which have gone out of all proportion and become enslaving. All appetites, basically, are healthy. It’s healthy to eat, it’s healthy to drink and so on. But, when an appetite becomes abnormal, perverted and enslaving, then it’s an addiction and all addictions are demonic. I discovered this by experience and I believe firmly it’s true. I dealt some years back with a young man who was the son of a doctor, a medical doctor, a well educated young man. His addiction was to cough mixture and he used to drink five bottles of cough mixture every day. I understand that the ingredient that was addictive was benzoturpinhydrate. I don’t know what it is. When I was in a morning worship service preaching on the power of the blood of Jesus, that young man was driven by that demon out of the service to the drug store to buy a bottle of cough mixture, so intensive was the compulsion to drink cough mixture. When I prayed with him that evening this demon spoke out of his voice, out of his throat with a deep bass voice and said, “I’m addiction. You can’t have him, I have his soul and I will not let go.” It was a real battle to get that demon out.

Another case of addiction that was remarkable, I dealt with a young woman of about 18, a Pentecostal girl saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit who had an addiction to nail varnish. She loved the smell of nail varnish. She said to me, “When I go into the cosmetics department of a major store I cannot act like a normal person. I have this compulsion to go and buy nail varnish. I either have to buy nail varnish or get out of that department.” When this spirit came out of her it tore her and came out screaming. It was not just a figment of the imagination.

The commonest addiction in the United States is—some of you have heard me say this many times—food addiction, gluttony. That’s just as much an addiction as alcohol. There was a Presbyterian minister in the camp last August, some of you will remember him. He had a tremendous battle for deliverance. I was really longing to get over to him but I couldn’t. There were some sisters ministering to him. When he was delivered I said, “What was that man delivered of?” One of these sisters said gluttony. He was in his late 50’s or early 60’s and he said, “This has absolutely warped my life. It’s even poisoned my relationship with my wife. It’s caused me to be deceptive. I’ll go downtown in the middle of the day, buy $2 worth of candy, eat it all in the car on the way home and then lie to my wife about where I’ve been.” It’s just like an alcoholic.

I’ll tell you what happens. Addictions are not the trunk, they’re branches. An addiction is a branch that grows on a trunk and the trunk if a frustration. So, in dealing with addiction if you don’t deal with the basic frustration you’ve not done a complete job. Let’s say a lady is frustrated. Her husband is running around with another woman and spending a lot more money than he earns. If that lady is an Episcopalian she’ll go to the martini, she’ll become an alcoholic. But if she’s Assemblies of God or Church of God she’ll go to the cookie jar and the pastry tray. She’ll become a foodaholic, that’s all. There isn’t any basic difference, they’re just the same. There are more foodaholics than there are alcoholics in the church, I’m not talking about the world at large. See, it isn’t respectable to be an alcoholic but it’s perfectly respectable in most religious circles to be a foodaholic.

Then there are other addictions. Nicotine, very common. It cannot be the will of God for a person to smoke and destroy the temple of the Holy Spirit which is the human body. Have you seen people die of lung cancer? I have. It could not be God’s will that you greatly increase the probability of your dying that terrible death. Be realistic. You can pass it off as a social expression or something harmless but it’s destroying you. Furthermore, it’s enslaving. You go to a prayer meeting and you’re a smoker and you walk outside, the first thing you want to do is light up. You just can’t hold out any longer. Maybe if the prayer meeting is too long you go out before it ends. You’re a slave. That’s a demon.

A Church of England rector in Britain told me that in his congregation there was a move of the Holy Spirit and a number of people who were never converted but were members of the church got saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit. There was one man who had this problem nicotine. He just could not stop smoking. Some people smoke and they don’t mind but he smoked and hated it and hated himself for doing it but he could not stop. This rector was a real good Anglican evangelical. He knew all about the 6th chapter of Romans, reckoning yourself to be dead indeed unto sin. Every time this man came to him he said, “Just reckon yourself to be dead.” The man said, “I’ve reckoned but it doesn’t work.” They had a prayer meeting one day and this rector told me this himself. He said, “In the prayer meeting he was suddenly moved by the Spirit of God. He walked up to that man, placed his hands on his chest and said, You demon of nicotine, come out of this man.” The man gave a kind of cough and a gasp, something came out and he couldn’t bear to be in the same room with people smoking after that. That’s the example of a person whose heart is right but they’re enslaved. He didn’t want it.

Now, wicked people want to do wicked things. But, good people hate wicked things and if they do them it’s because they’re enslaved.

Heresies. I think we’ll have to leave that for another session. The whole area of religious deception. I think we’ll deal with that tomorrow. Thank God we’ve got four sessions and it’s so important in modern America. Do you know the greatest enemy of modern America today? I say this soberly, it’s witchcraft. There’s a professional witch that’s right enthroned at the door of the white house. I don’t want to name her but I’ve just been in that area and I’ve had firsthand information of the nature of her activities and the persons whom she has influenced. I would say one thing. It’s a good thing that Nixon won the last election. Not for political reasons but because his rival regularly consults that prophetess. I have this on the best, most up to date, firsthand information. Her best friend has just been converted and is going to write a book exposing her, incidentally. Pray for that book because the devil is going to fight it tooth and nail.

Another interesting piece of information about books is that Don Basham, who is a personal friend of mind, has got a book in the final stages which is going to be published by John Sherrill on how he came into this deliverance ministry and the stories and experiences. It will be a best seller without any doubt. It will be a real counterblast to these other books that you can see on every book stand, every drug store, every air terminal and so on.

We’ve come to the point of how to be delivered. There we are. Physical, we’ll deal with them later. I don’t have more time. I have got ten minutes in which to tell you how to be delivered. The physical we’ll deal with, hopefully. Let me just mention certain things which I believe are demonic. Allergies, almost all sinus problems, tumors, ulcers, arthritis, heart attacks... These are my opinions. I am not a medical doctor, I am not practicing medicine. But there is a medical doctor from Columbus, Georgia—some of you probably know him—who was in the CFO retreat last spring and heard me preach this. He said, “I’ll see if it’s true.” He had a persistent allergy that he could not eat wheat or anything with wheat in it. He came forward in my deliverance service, prayed the deliverance prayer and said, “If I’m delivered I can eat wheat.” He went away and has been eating wheat ever since. He was a Baptist. So, if you can convince a Baptist physician that allergies are demonic I think you’ve won the battle!

How to get delivered. Simple. I’ve outlined the conditions. Let me tell you first of all the Bible says “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.” That’s just as inclusive a promise as “Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish.” One’s John 3:6, the other is Joel 2:32. So, all you have to know is the conditions, meet them and receive deliverance.

Number one, humility. I don’t mean that you’ve got to be a saint in humility. I mean, you’ve got to humble yourself. If I could have written it up without using too many words I would have. It’s not persistent humility of years, it’s humbling yourself. That’s an act of your will, it’s a decision which you can make in the next five minutes, to humble yourself. You see, I tell people this: There may come a moment when you’ll have to choose between your dignity and your deliverance. Then if you humble yourself you’ll let dignity go and get deliverance. Dignity will come back again later. But if you’re proud, you refuse to lose your dignity and you lose your deliverance. People come to me sometimes and say, “Brother Prince, could you pray with me in private?” I say, “Certainly I could, but what’s the motive? Is it pride? Because, if it’s pride, you’re not in the right basis to meet God in the first place.” God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble. God knoweth the proud afar off and that’s where he keeps them, too!

Number two, truth. Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” One thing is knowing the truth of God’s word but the other which is more down to earth is knowing the truth about yourself. Today I’ve tried to show you the truth about yourself. I’ve discovered people that are downright honest always get delivered. But people that you have to keep drawing it out of them and you never know when you’ve got the last item, it’s very hard to get them delivered. I say this: Truth in your case means calling a spade a spade and not an agricultural implement. Or, to put it this way, call your problem by the same name you’d call it in your husband and you’ve got the right name.

You know, I was saying at lunch I get letters. People get my little booklet, Expelling Demons. About several times a month I normally receive a letter from some poor, harassed lady somewhere in the county. She says, “Brother Prince, I’ve read your book Expelling Demons. My husband has all seven symptoms, what shall I do?” I don’t have an answer to that question so don’t bother to write. If you have all seven symptoms, then you act on what the book says.

Thirdly, you have to confess your sins. It’s old fashioned but God still requires it. You don’t have to confess to men here today but you have to confess to Almighty God. When it comes to confessing your sin let me tell you something which is obvious but few people realize it. You’re never going to tell anything to God about yourself that he doesn’t already know. See, you’re never going to shock God. Oh, isn’t that good news! God is unshockable. When you’ve told him the worst he says, “I knew it all along. It wasn’t for my sake you were telling me, it was for your sake because you’ve got to get it off your chest. You’ve got to come out in the open with it.” Light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light. They would not come to the light. Confession is coming to the light. It’s exposing that area of your life that you just wish wasn’t there. You have to expose it to the light of God. Not to the light of man but of God.

Number four, repent. That means to renounce, to turn away from, to count as your enemy. David said, “Oh, God, do not I hate them that hate thee. Am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies.” And then he said, “Search me, O God, and try my heart.” He was talking about the things inside him that were God’s enemies. He said, “Lord, if they’re your enemies they’re my enemies. I’ll not be friends with the enemies of God. I’ll make God’s enemies my enemies even if they’re in me.” You see, God will not deliver you from your friends. If you enjoy lust and gossip and these things, God’s not going to take them out. But if you hate them he’ll deliver you.

Hating everything evil, renouncing it, refusing to have anything to do with it, this is repentance. In this category I want to say though I’ll deal with it tomorrow more thoroughly, you have to denounce occult involvement. Every type of involvement with the occult. The Ouija board, horoscopes, fortune telling, Jeanne Dixon, Edgar Cayce, handwriting analysis, automatic writing, ESP, hypnosis, the whole works. You have to renounce it because those are the agents of Satan and you cannot be friends with Satan’s agents and friends with God at the same time. You have to hate the enemies of God.

I’m going to preach on this tomorrow but I want to say it because in many cases it will hinder your deliverance. If you are still in any way under the shadow of the visit to a fortune teller, playing with a Ouija board, dealing with tarot cards, all these things, the devil still has a legal claim over you and when you come to deliverance he’ll say, “No. Wait a minute, now. I’ve got a right to that area. Don’t you think you can get me out because you can’t.” He’s a legal expert.

Number five needs a sermon on its own. Forgive others. Do you remember why? The unforgiving servant was in the hands of the tormentors because he refused to forgive his fellow servant. If you refuse to forgive any person living or dead, you are not a candidate for full deliverance. Forgiveness is not an emotion, it’s a decision. In simple language, it’s tearing up the IOU.

Your parents owe you $10,000 for all the love, care, affection, consideration, teaching they never gave you. You’ve got it there in your hand. You can pray for them, you can wish for them, you can pray for deliverance but the only thing that matters is tearing up the IOU. Your husband owes you $15,000 for running around with three other women. Well, you can hold onto that IOU as long as you like but you’ll not be delivered ’till you tear it up.

The last thing, call on the name of the Lord. “It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered.”

Now, it is quarter to five, our period is ended and I want you to do it this way. This is the end of the teaching session. All I’m going to do now is minister. “Lord, we thank you for your presence with us. We thank you for your word, we thank you for your Spirit. We know that you love us, you care for us, you’re concerned, you want the best. You sent your word to heal and to deliver your people. Now Lord, let every person here be guided by your Holy Spirit in making the right decision whether to go or whether to stay. I pray that all that do not need deliverance or are not ready to receive deliverance will go. I pray that your blessing shall go with them. I pray that those that have come to the realization that they need deliverance and are willing to meet the conditions will stay, Lord, and that your blessing will remain also with those who stay. Bless the next meeting, the speaker and everything we’re going to do throughout the remainder of this camp. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

Now, Brother Prince is not the deliverer. Nor any other human being here. Jesus said, “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.” So, if you come he will not turn you away. All right?

Secondly, even when he was on earth Jesus said, “If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come unto you.” So, even while he was personally present on earth, the power by which he drove out evil spirits was the power of the Holy Spirit. How much more when he’s now in heaven? Therefore, the agent who actually administers deliverance to you is the Holy Spirit. In order to receive deliverance you have to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. If you resist the Holy Spirit, you resist your deliverance.

In cooperating with the Holy Spirit there is one simple, basic, physical fact that I will tell you. I’m always in a strait between two things. One is not helping people as much as I could and the other is I’m liable to be accused of planting suggestions in people’s minds which cause them to act in a certain way that they would not otherwise act. Well, I’m going to take the risk of being accused of making certain suggesting because I prefer to help the people that need help. If you’re receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as I understand it, it’s important for you to know that it will culminate in your speaking with tongues. If I instruct people who want the baptism in the Holy Spirit, I tell them the culmination will be that you will yield your tongue and your vocal organs to the Holy Spirit and as you speak he will give you a new language. But I always tell them remember, he will not do the speaking. You must do the speaking, he gives you the language. Therefore, if you want to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit immediately without a lot of delay and fuss, you yield your vocal members, you begin to speak, he’ll give you the words. I’ve led thousands of people into the baptism almost instantly in that way.

Now, they could receive the baptism without my telling them that but it would normally take them longer to do so because they wouldn’t realize how they can cooperate with the Holy Spirit.

The same thing is true in deliverance. Phillips translation of Mark 16:17 says this:

These signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall expel demons.

That’s why I call my book Expelling Demons. The key word is expelling because it takes it out of King James English into modern English and modern thinking. Everybody really knows what the word expel means. If you have inhaled tobacco smoke and it’s in your lungs and you don’t want it, what do you do? You expel it or exhale it. What is that? It’s a decision of your will and an action of your muscles.

Expelling evil spirits is the same. If you’re a believer then you have the authority in the name of Jesus to expel them. From whom? Who better than yourself? Begin with yourself. What is to expel? It’s a decision followed by an action. In both Hebrew and Greek the word for spirit is also the word for breath or wind. An evil spirit is an evil breath just as the Holy Spirit is the breath of the Almighty. In the baptism, what I tell people to do is drink in the Sprit of God. Jesus said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” I find the people that drink always receive. I’ve never seen a person come to Jesus, meet the conditions and start to drink in without receiving the baptism. Never.

Now, expelling is the exact opposite of drinking in. It’s exhaling. When you’ve met the conditions, when you’ve prayed the prayer, don’t go on praying. Again, it’s the same with the baptism. Many people pray themselves out of the baptism. They come to Jesus and go on telling him they want the baptism instead of drinking. You’ve seen that happen, haven’t you? You don’t get the baptism by praying, you get the baptism by drinking. You don’t expel demons by praying, you expel demons by expelling them. So, when you’ve come to this moment where you’ve been through this prayer and said everything that I lead you to say, you’ll have met the legal conditions if you prayed the prayer in sincerity. Now you’re a legal candidate for deliverance. You’ve come to Jesus, you can rely on the Holy Spirit to begin to minister deliverance to you, what do you do? Cooperate with the Holy Spirit. How? Begin to breathe out, begin to expel. It may happen the first breath will be pure human breath. The second likewise. The third also. But somewhere down the line something other than human breath is going to start coming out. That’s your enemy.

When evil spirits come out they come out with a variety of different manifestations. It says in Acts 8:7 when Philip preached in Samaria, unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them. There are many different operations as an evil spirit comes out. Sometimes it’s scarcely perceptible. Just a little sigh. Sometimes it’s a yawn. I know a lady that was delivered of the demon of nicotine, she yawned so wide she thought she was going to dislocate her jaws. But when they came together again she was free of nicotine. Often it’s a sob. Habitually the spirit of fear will come out with a sobbing sound. Often it’s a cough. Sometimes it’s a scream or a groan or a roar. The demon of anger or murder often come out with a roar.

I am not encouraging you to scream or sob or roar. But what I am trying to do is prevent you from being inhibited if it happens that way. Because, when that scream rises to your lips, if you suppress it, you’ve suppressed the demon.

You know what happens when the ambulance goes down the road and its light is flashing and its siren is going. All other traffic draws off to one side or the other, isn’t that right? That’s like the demon. When the ambulance starts coming out, get everything else out of the way. Stop praying, don’t speak in tongues, don’t use the name of Jesus, let it go. I say to people if I’m ministering to them, “Listen, let me do the praying, you do the letting go. Your praying isn’t going to do it. In fact, your praying is going to hinder the demon.” The demon cannot cross the name of Jesus when it’s on your lips. If you speak in tongues you’re holding the demon inside because the tongues are more powerful than he is. So, when you come to this moment, whoosh, let them go. If you’re really prepared, if you’ve gone along step by step, you can get rid of a dozen in no time—and you may have to get rid of more than a dozen, believe me. Don’t let numbers worry you. Okay, I think that’s enough.

I don’t see why you shouldn’t remain seated. Actually, I’ve never been an obstetrician—and I trust I never will be! I’m speaking from guesswork but I think there are certain position of the body in which it’s easier to get them out. Very often when your body is inclined forward like that you’re expeller works better.

Now, we’re going to say this prayer to Jesus and this is your confession of faith and you’re meeting the legal requirements for deliverance. When you finish the prayer you say, “In Jesus’ name, amen.” Then I’m going to do the praying, I’ll command the demons to come out. You let them go.