Month: December 2014

The news clipping above is a real news article about a real event in Nigeria. Police jailed a goat on charges of robbery, claiming the animal was actually a human robber who supernaturally morphed himself into a goat to avoid detection. In America, that seems laughable. Not in Nigeria, or most any nation in Africa. Cultures there are not as rationalistic as westerners who ridicule most talk of the paranormal. But step outside of the U. S. A. and you’ll find a different paradigm of reality in most nations, especially in countries with a history of tribalism and witchcraft. Tales of witch doctors transforming themselves into animal forms are replete in such societies, especially in places like Nepal and Tibet where lamas claim the power to appear as tigers and leopards. Some African shamans say they can morph into a lion, as needs be, to seek revenge on an enemy. Similar tales have been told to me in Haiti by believers and non-believers of voodoo.

Superstition? Legend? Hype? Likely, but maybe Satan knows something about the coefficient between energy and matter (You know, E=MC2; all matter and energy are interchangeable.). Remember Jannes and Jambres, the black magicians of Pharoah (1 Tim. 3:8), were able to duplicate the miracle of Moses and turn their rods into snakes as well. In the end, a goat may just be a goat. But we must never underestimate what Satan can do to and for those who delve into his realm. That is why God has forbidden all the supernaturalism of the occult. Stay away from Ouija Boards, psychics, Tarot cards, fortune tellers, and all divination or the devil may get your goat.

An encouraging word: SEATED IN HEAVENLY PLACES

Ephesians chapter two has always been one of my favorite portions of the Bible. I especially like the truth in verse six, that as Christians, we are seated “together” with Christ in “heavenly places.” I realize that in our day to day struggles it doesn’t often feel like we are raised in righteousness and, spiritually speaking, right there next to Christ in heavenly realms. Of course, our condition in the flesh doesn’t always match the position of our spiritual standing with Christ. That’s when we need to remind ourselves, and the devil, that no matter what the circumstances, Christ is always that near, seated right next to us and cheering us on in a front-row seat.

Bob Larson has trained healing and deliverance teams all over the world to set the captives free and Do What Jesus Did (Luke 4:18).  You can partner with Bob and support this vision to demonstrate God’s power in action by calling 303-980-1511 or clicking here to donate online.

You’d better watch out, you’d better not pout . . . or the Christmas demon may get you. Better known in European (especially Austrian/German) folklore as Krampus, this hideous creature is the anti-St. Nicholas. Just as the fat jolly guy in fiction bestows gifts, Krampus punishes the children who’ve been naughty. Even today he’s still celebrated in some alpine towns just as he was hundreds of years ago. At times this Christmas demon has been denounced, but this horned deity of destruction is apparently having a resurgence. With long hair, cloven hooves, and a pointed tongue he is depicted on the night before the Feast of St. Nicholas. He has historically also been shown sexually pursuing women. Legend says he is the son of Hel who rules the realm of the dead in Greek mythology.

According to National Geographic, whose interest is anthropological and not spiritual, the “half-goat, half-demon horrific beast literally beats people into being nice and not naughty.” Worse than that. The most rebellious children get taken straight to hell, in folklore. Even today, drunken men in Slovenia and the Czech Republic roam the streets dressed as devils. In Austria they now sell collectable, satanic Krampus demon horns.  And in America, it has become trendy to have Krampus parties as a kind of anti-Christmas celebration. This week, the TV show “American Dad” (which lampoons conservative GOP types) featured a Krampus festival. An annual Krampusnacht (Krampus night) is held in Washington DC each year.

 The Geographic suggests it’s just a psychological attempt for individuals to “get in touch with their animalistic side.” But those who dress as this creature, or celebrate his presence during the Christmas season, might get more than a few risque laughs. Donning the personae of a demon is to invite him into one’s soul. Celebrating his evil with merriment will bring a night of torment, not one which is “calm and bright.”

An encouraging word:   DON’T BE ANXIOUS

I was riding in the car with my daughter a few days ago when she said, “Let’s listen to the Bible.” She plugged in her smartphone and began at Philippians chapter four. Verse six hit me: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything . . . present your requests to God.” Like you, I’ve heard this verse hundreds of times, but I needed it that day. To be honest, I was feeling anxious about some things I was facing. It’s wonderful how a simple word from God can change everything. But if we are not reading and hearing His Word, there is no way we can be inspired by Scripture. Whatever you face today, perhaps your own anxiousness, take time for some small nugget of truth from the Bible to impact your heart, like it did mine.

Bob Larson has trained healing and deliverance teams all over the world to set the captives free and Do What Jesus Did (Luke 4:18).  You can partner with Bob and support this vision to demonstrate God’s power in action by calling 303-980-1511 or clicking here to donate online.

Ho, ho, ho. It’s getting a little harder to be jolly this Christmas season. First it was the release last week of Ridley Scott’s extraordinarily offensive and unbiblical film “Exodus: Gods and Kings.” Now, just as you are getting ready to sing “Away in a Manger” comes a new book, Atheist Heart, Humanist Mind. Written by an executive at the home/apartment booking site AirBnB, Lex Bayer, in collaboration with a humanist chaplain at Stanford University (Didn’t know they had such a thing, did you? Why not?), John Figdor. Having no divine source to ask, Bayer and Figdor surveyed fellow non-believers for their ideas of what non-Pentateuch edicts would best convey their values. As might be expected, no “shalt nots” turned up in the survey. No commands to avoid stealing and adultery. Just bromide platitudes, including:

• Be open minded.
• Strive to understand what is most likely to be true.
• God is not necessary to be a good person.
• Leave the world a better place.
• Treat others as you want them to treat you. (Hmmm. Sounds familiar.)

I’m not sure such syrupy sentiments would have had much of an effect on Hitler or Stalin. And I’m certain that if read by pedophiles and drug dealers today these “suggestions” would not strike much fear into their hearts to change their ways. But ideas like this go down well in our compromised culture. Bayer, Figdor and their accomplices, didn’t invent these ideas. Demons did. They are “doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). Demons inspired such noble ideas? Other than the borrowed concept of treating others the way you wish them to treat you (Matthew 5:44), the drivel of the atheists’ “ten commandments” are an excuse for feeling good while being blasphemous. As an exorcist, I’ve never met a demon who doubted the Bible, disbelieved the deity of Christ, or denied the existence of the Pit. I invite Bayer and Figdor on a weekend with me to observe the casting out of demons. They might come away with 10 better ideas about how to get to heaven and avoid hell.

An encouraging word:   BORN OF A VIRGIN

A VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE (Isaiah 7:14). I capitalized the words because they are so astounding. Such a thing was impossible and had never happened. A woman would give birth without a human father. Why would Isaiah write this hundreds of years before Christ? Moreover, the Lord who inspired the prophet to pen these words added to the mystery. The child born of this astounding event would be named in advance: Immanuel, “God with us.” We take this for granted. We often sing “O Holy Night” and recite the Christmas story without a thought regarding its amazing circumstances. Never forget the miracle that is the birth of Christ. Billions have been born since then, but never has God come in human flesh as a baby BORN OF A VIRGIN since that night in Bethlehem.

Bob Larson has trained healing and deliverance teams all over the world to set the captives free and Do What Jesus Did (Luke 4:18).  You can partner with Bob and support this vision to demonstrate God’s power in action by calling 303-980-1511 or clicking here to donate online.

Did her or didn’t he? That’s the question. Michael D Williams was arraigned this week on murder charges and is being held on $1 million bond in a Michigan jail. While riding an Amtrak train, Williams pulled a knife and stabbed a conductor and three passengers. He later told detectives that the “guy he was talking to on the train turned into a demon and he had to fight him,” according to court documents. A sister told reporters that Williams had been hallucinating and feared for his life. Said the sister, “Whatever he believed in his head was real to him. Nothing I could have said could make him think any different.”

What really happened? Let’s break this down logically. First, Williams was certainly mentally ill and suffering from delusions. How long these psychotic episodes had been going on we may never know. Second, what of the attempted murderer’s claims that he saw a demon? There are a lot of crazy things he might have said, but saying he saw an evil spirit is bit out of the box. The possibilities? It may have been strictly psychosis. Or the man he saw might have really had a demon that manifested and triggered this tragedy. Or the demon may have been in the mind of Williams. That’s at least part of what I’d conclude.

Mental health experts would likely argue that the claim of seeing a demons is due to the cultural construct that envisions demons as the ultimate evil. Maybe. Or perhaps we as a society are so naturalistic in our thinking we’re ready to explain away every supernatural reality. Look at those eyes in the photo above. Unless Williams was deliberately acting out a demonic demeanor, those eyes certainly convey the gaze of the kind of murderous crime that demons would have inspired him to commit.

An encouraging word:  DELIVERED FROM DARKNESS

Paul told the Colossians that Christians have been “delivered from power of darkness” (Colossians 1:13). Most Bible readers pass over that with casual recognition, but ponder those words. We are DELIVERED! Satan was once our spiritual ruler because of sin, and now, if we walk by faith in obedience to His word, the mastery of the devil has ended. We now may walk in light. But it’s important to know that, like all promises in the Word of God, we must confess and possess this truth. Too many Christians have permitted Satan to continue an illegitimate control over their lives by faithlessness and spiritual rebellion. Remember, because of the Cross, you are delivered. Take possession of that promise.

Bob Larson has trained healing and deliverance teams all over the world to set the captives free and Do What Jesus Did (Luke 4:18).  You can partner with Bob and support this vision to demonstrate God’s power in action by calling 303-980-1511 or clicking here to donate online.

You may have missed it a couple of weeks ago: the shooting on the campus of Florida State University. A gunman opened fire on students, injuring three of them. A student, Jason Derfuss, inside the library where the gunfire took place was grateful that he escaped being killed. It wasn’t until hours later that Derfuss discovered that there were bullet holes in his backpack and a slug in a book he was carrying:  Great Medieval Thinkers – John Wyclif. He had actually been targeted by the shooter, who aimed from about five feet away. In a text, Derfuss wrote, “I was almost killed tonight, and God intervened.”

We have all heard both true and likely apocryphal stories about soldiers’ lives being saved by a Bible stopping a bullet in time of war. But this is for real, and the bullet-riddled backpack is proof. The round embedded in the book testifies that only a miraculous circumstance kept this student from certain death. And not only was the student a Christian, but the book was about a Christian, one of the greatest of all time, John Wyclif.

Wyclif (also spelled Wycliffe) was a 14th century churchman whose leadership led, in part, to the Protestant Reformation. In contrast to the stifling effect of the papacy, he emphasized that the Bible should be every individual’s guide to spirituality and salvation. He opposed the extravagance of church ceremonies and was instrumental in the Bible being translated into common language. In fact Wycliffe’s Bible, completed in 1384, was the beginning of a movement to get the Word of God to the masses in printed text, available to all. Many today have been saved because of Wyclif’s life. Jason Derfuss is most certainly alive because Wyclif’s deeds were heralded in the book in as backpack.  I wonder how many others, like you and me, have dodged a spiritual bullet from the devil because of the heritage of this great man of God. As Derfuss also said of his near-death encounter, “I know conceptually He can do all things but to physically witness the impossible and to be surrounded by such grace is indescribable. To God be the glory forever and ever, Amen.”

An encouraging word:  REJOICE WHEN CHRIST IS PREACHED

Want a remedy for a hypercritical attitude or an unreasonably judgmental spirit? Philippians 1:18 has the antidote: The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached…I rejoice. That’s hard to do sometimes, especially when you may know what’s going on behind the scenes. You might be tempted to rebuke or point your finger in condemnation. I’m not suggesting that we should overlook immoral or unethical behavior, but don’t dismiss the communication of spiritual truth because you don’t like the preacher or his motives. Take constructive actions to remedy any egregious wrongs, but be thankful that God’s Word is going forth. 

Bob Larson has trained healing and deliverance teams all over the world to set the captives free and Do What Jesus Did (Luke 4:18).  You can partner with Bob and support this vision to demonstrate God’s power in action by calling 303-980-1511 or clicking here to donate online.

What if a convicted killer on death row wanted to defend himself and called as witnesses the pope and Jesus Christ? What if that same convict, during his trial for murder, put himself on the stand and questioned himself by adopting a series of different personalities and voices to match? This scenario isn’t only highly unusual, it’s reality. Yesterday the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the state of Texas granted a last minute stay of execution to death row inmate Scott Panetti. On Sept. 8, 1992, Panetti shaved his head, dressed in military fatigues, armed himself with a sawed-off shotgun and hunting rifle and shot his in-laws, Joe and Amanda Alvarado, at close range in front of his wife and young daughter. Critics of this instance of capital punishment argued that Panetti, who dressed as a cowboy during his trial, was schizophrenic and suffered from psychotic delusions; thus, his severe mental illness was a mitigating factor in his violent acts. But what if there is another explanation?  DID and demons.

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), known in popular parlance as Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD), is a fracturing of the mind, a fragmentation most often resulting from acute trauma. The afflicted individual has a need to survive by compartmentalizing horrific memories into categorical personality identities. For example, a person sexually abused when very young, may develop a child alter-ego state (“alter”) to encapsulate the memory of the violation, keeping all of its pain and shame in a separate mental space. If subsequent additional abuses occur, other “alters” contain those memories and feelings. Thus, an individual may assume any number of alternate personalities, some acting out violent and even murderous behavior.

Does this explain why Panetti acted so bizarrely? Was the killer in camouflage a dissociated identity in Panetti’s mind who expressed his violent rage in ways he wasn’t completely aware of? Did he suffer some unspeakable horror as a child that led him to develop a murderous personality who could exact delusional revenge on scapegoated in-laws? We’ll never know because he was labeled a “mentally ill” killer. I’m not suggesting he should have gotten off on such a presupposition, but it would have been helpful for future cases like this to investigate further his mental processes instead of writing him off as crazy.

Simply put, here’s how this process works. An emotionally tortured individual develops an alter to hold the pain. Demons enter that vulnerable mental compartment and hide behind the alter. These evil spirits manipulate the dysfunctional alter to believe in evil and to commit evil acts. The real culprit here is the dissociation and the demonization. I am not excusing criminal acts with spiritual and psychological mumbo-jumbo. I am saying that the devil is cleverer than most courts and many mental health experts.  Everyone loses in a case like Panetti: the killer, his victims, and due process of justice.

An encouraging word:  NONE DOES GOOD

“There is no one who does good, not even one,” says Romans 3:12. The apostle Paul echoes the sentiment of Psalm 14:3 in the exact, same wording. Those are strong conclusions for the humanists and educated sophisticates who believe that mankind is on an ascent to greater good. The Bible teaches that since the fall of Adam and Eve, human beings have been on a path of moral decline away from the splendor of Eden. We are sinners, born and bent toward evil as our most natural inclination. We may dress up this negative human impulse with good intentions and noble virtues, but the decline of civilization is always, eventually marching toward destruction. The answer to this dilemma is individual reconciliation with God through faith in Christ. Only then may we act in ways that are in accord with true virtue and godliness.

Bob Larson has trained healing and deliverance teams all over the world to set the captives free and Do What Jesus Did (Luke 4:18).  You can partner with Bob and support this vision to demonstrate God’s power in action by calling 303-980-1511 or clicking here to donate online.

As I prepared today’s blog, I was adding a notice about our upcoming Personal One-On-One Encounter sessions in New York City. I wanted to include a picture of New York to draw attention to my being there. I simply googled “New York at Christmas.” The results? More than half the photos, like those above, included depictions of angels. Ill-defined angels at that. This made me stop and think of all the ways that popular culture has messed up the spiritual reality of angels. Unfortunately, most Christians have unwittingly bought into these errors. That’s one reason our International School of Exorcism (To enroll CLICK HERE.) includes two out of the 30 Courses dedicated to studying the proper biblical view of angels.

Angels are important in spiritual warfare. That’s obvious from Scripture from the heralding of Christ’s birth (Luke chapter 2) to the final demise of the devil (Revelation 20:1-3). A few other topics covered in the exorcism school are: Angelic Armies, Angelic Activity, Angelic Order, Angelic Intelligence, and Angelic Emotions. I also explain in detail the hierarchy of angels, which includes: cherubim, seraphim, hosts, principalities, powers, thrones, dominions, might, and dominions. Even more importantly, I explain the things that angels may do when fighting the devil, including striking demons with torment and judgment, as well as being spiritual enforcers and “bodyguards.” The School of Exorcism section on angels is an important education in equipping Christians to do battle against the devil.

The Courses on angels also dispel misconceptions. For example, angels do blow trumpets (Rev. 8:13, 1 Corinthians 15:52, Matt 6:2) but there’s no reason to think that Gabriel is the one with this sole assignment. Most important, every appearance of angels in scripture is in masculine gender. There are no instances of female angels. Yet some Christians insist they have seen or talked with female angels, a phenomenon that is clearly associated with the occult and New Age. (Check out New Age web sites about angels and you’ll see what I mean.) Some false, female angels look downright sexy, slightly sanitized versions of succubi (demons that have sex with male humans). Clearly, a lot of solid Christian teaching is needed on the subject of angels, and the International School of Exorcism is great place to start. ENROLL NOW BY CLICKING HERE.

An encouraging word:  FEELING FORGOTTEN BY GOD

“Will you forget me forever?” These words of David in Psalm 13:1 may be seen a bit pathetic or ill-advised. David is talking to God and wonders why the Almighty doesn’t seem to answers his prayers and seems far away. You can probably remember a time in your own life when you’ve “been there, done that,” just like David. On those occasions we must always remember than any sense of estrangement from God is due to feelings, not fact. When you want to tell God, “Hey, it’s me, down here. Do you remember me?” it’s probably because you’ve somehow moved away from the Lord, not vice versa. In a way, that’s not a bad cry of David. At least he wanted to be close to God and was bothered that he no longer had that same sense of nearness. The real problem is when you and I draw away from the Lord and no longer recognize that it has happened.

Bob Larson has trained healing and deliverance teams all over the world to set the captives free and Do What Jesus Did (Luke 4:18).  You can partner with Bob and support this vision to demonstrate God’s power in action by calling 303-980-1511 or clicking here to donate online.