Month: July 2018

In one of the dumbest, buck-passing ideas ever foisted on the public, USA-TODAY newspaper last week ran a story with the hot headline, “Global warming risk: Rising temperatures from climate change linked to rise in suicides.” They’re kidding, right? Wrong. Next, they’ll somehow link climate change to teen pregnancy and autism. The basic point of the article is this: a study found that, according to researchers at Stanford University, “. . . suicide rates rise 0.7% for each 1.8-degree increase in monthly average temperature.” So, hotter weather makes people more depressed and prone to suicide. Hey, I live in Phoenix, and I can confess that days on end of 100+ temperatures is depressing. But to link self-murder to climate change is a stretch.

I suggest that the real agenda here isn’t combating suicide, but to provide more ammo to get the American public on the human-causes-climate-change-bandwagon. The ultimate goal is political subordination of our national interests to an international elite. Also included in this article is a quote from a National Academy of Sciences study that claims 59,000 people in India have committed suicide in India over the last three decades, all due to, you guessed it, climate change. Never mind the tormenting factors of crushing poverty and the Hindu caste system of fateful discrimination. Why blame demon gods or corrupt governments for people’s misery? Let’s blame climate change. 

I would assert that in America, the increase of drug abuse, sexual promiscuity, alcoholism and the loss of religious faith have resulted in the deaths of far more people than a hot summer day. It’s a cop-out to avoid blaming sin and moral failure for the increase in people killing themselves. Some people do commit suicide for mental health reasons, but far more individuals end their lives because they have no faith in a loving God who can save them from their emotional misery. Judas didn’t kill himself because of the air quality of Palestine. He hung himself because he had betrayed his hope of a Savior. The climate may be changing, but that’s no excuse to avoid Christ’s message of salvation that gives people a reason to live.

An encouraging word: LOOK TO THE CROSS

“The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,” Paul told the Corinthians (1 Cor. 1:18). Sadly, today the cross sometime adorns the bling of gutter-language rap artists and the cleavage of erotic Hollywood starlets. But such demeaning of the cross never takes away what it really represents. Thousands of cathedrals place it at their apex and stained-glass windows glow with its hope. The cross is truly, as Paul says, “the power of Christ.” In His crucifixion there is hope. In His death there is life. And in His resurrection, there is immortality. Thank God for the cross.

A truth of Christian cosmology is this: God has angels assigned to look after each of us, as Luke 4:10 promises. Contrastingly, 1 Peter 5:8 reminds us that demons are also lurking around us constantly. We know from Revelation 12:4 that 2/3 of heaven’s angels did not rebel against God. So, it’s reasonable to assume, in most cases that the angels on assignment to bless and protect us outnumber two-to-one the demons assigned to harass us. Confidence in this truth is assured, UNLESS, something upsets that equation. If there is unconfessed sin, if there is an unhealed emotional stronghold in the soul, or if there are unbroken curses, angelic protection may not be fully effective. Why? These conditions give Satan an opening, a legal loophole, to attack. It is then that the demons he’s had on assignment go into action and spiritual distress follows.

From my experience as an exorcist, I can tell you that these demons on assignment aren’t usually the big boys, like Beelzebub, or Mammon, or even Jezebel. There are niggling, petty spirits. They are like poltergeists, irritating spirits without the ability to destroy (like Murder or Rage) but having powers to place obstacles in the path of one’s life. Take for example a strange demon I encountered recently during an international Skype Encounter with someone half-way around the world. The session was with a couple struggling with various issues, but one challenge was their inability to have a child. When demons manifested, concerning other generational witchcraft issues, I demanded to know the source of the infertility, which doctors hadn’t been able to find. A demon rose up calling itself Low Sperm Count.

He called himself that because his assignment was to keep this couple childless. The demon was clandestinely attacking the husband’s body to prevent conception. We broke the curses attached to this assignment, cast out the Low Sperm Count demon, and we now anxiously await news of their expecting a child. This case illustrates the unusual ways that a demon on-assignment may adapt to almost any matter to bring failure, torment, and disappointment in life. That’s not to say that every issue we face is because a demon has been assigned to that problem; but consider the possibility that certain challenges in life may be the direct result of a demonic assignment. Confront the matter forcefully in prayer; break any curses that give the assignment power; and cancel the specific duty of that demon. Terminating demonic assignments is an important way to get free, live free, and stay free and overcome in the Lord.

An encouraging word: YOU ARE NOT FORSAKEN

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” You’re probably familiar with those words of Jesus on the cross. The feeling of forsakenness, abandonment, and rejection is so much a part of the human condition: the employee whose years of faithful services ends abruptly with a pink slip; the husband or wife who suddenly discovers the infidelity of a lifelong partner; the child who wonders why his parents are getting a divorce. “Why am I forsaken?” is a universal human cry, to which the Lord, who himself felt forsaken, answers, “I will never forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

Beware the Enneagram. Facts first. For those not aware, the Enneagram is a said to be a nine-personality-type model of the human soul. The geometric symbol, pictured above, illustrates that the nine types are interconnected. Unlike the Meyers-Briggs 16 personality types used in business, and the temperament analysis of my late friend Tim LaHaye (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic), the Enneagram is rooted in the New Age, occult divination, and Islamic superstition. But the problem is, this dangerous typing of individual identities is gaining traction among many Christians. Richard Rohr has written “The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective.” (Rohr is a Catholic priest who teaches that God is neither male or female, advocates homosexuality, and declares that the crucifixion of Christ wasn’t necessary.) The Religion News Service (quoted and requoted by many evangelical publications) glowingly endorsed this system. The evangelical mission group Intervarsity Press has published “Mirror for the Soul: A Christian Enneagram.” Yet another “Christian” book is called, “The Sacred Enneagram.” 

What’s the truth? The roots of the Enneagram go deep into witchcraft. One root is Oscar Ichazo, a Bolivian mystic who founded the Arica School, an early basis for New Age teaching. (I cover Arica in my “World Religions” book.) Another root is Claudio Naranjo, a Chilean psychiatrist and founder of the Seekers of Truth Institute. Naranjo was involved in Gestalt therapy, the advocacy of psychotropic drugs in therapy, and borrowed from eastern mysticism to promote the occult idea of a divine inner family of the soul. A third source of the Enneagram is the teaching of Islamic, Sufi mystic Gurdjieff, also covered in my “World Religions” book. Gurdjieff taught a state of unified consciousness and promoted transcending to this state of full human potential. His core ideas came from supposedly meeting both real and spirit beings from Tibet to Egypt. 

The guilt-by-association factor provides sufficient, damning evidence. But my concern is simple. The Enneagram system seeks to do what Inner Healing and Deliverance through Christ does more effectively and without demonic associations. When the church denies the reality of spiritual warfare, it looks elsewhere for a more palatable substitute to overcome mankind’s descent into spiritual entropy and demonic bondage.  The Enneagram is the new Christian yoga, yet another attempt to take that which is historically and foundationally demonic and sanctify it by redefinition and clever semantics. In the words of Isaiah 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

An encouraging word: SPEAK WELL OF OTHERS 

Every day the headlines blare the rancor that exists in today’s politics. Each side seems to be positioning itself to take advantage at the expense of the other. Psalm 15:3 tells us that God will only bless the person who “has no slander on his tongue and who does his neighbor no wrong.” There aren’t many Senators or Representatives who can qualify. And it’s not just politics. Our culture thrives on almost everyone getting ahead at the expense of someone else. So, no matter what the way of the world is, remember that God honors one who, as verse three continues to say, “casts no slur on his fellowman.” 

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.

Our “Bob Larson Exorcism” channel on YouTube, features a dramatic exorcism every other week. On alternate weeks, we present “Ask the Exorcist,” a Q&A forum with interesting questions posed to me, from around the world. Occasionally, I pick a question to post in this blog because the topic warrants special attention. Such is the case with a question, from a young man named True in California. (Disclosure, I know this young man and his family who are wonderful friends of our ministry. I’m not giving True preferential treatment; I feature his question because it focuses on interesting insights into how psychics operate.):

Hi Bob, my question is: When psychics say that they are speaking with dead relatives, are they actually speaking to an ancestor? A demon? Or a part of the client’s mind that contains the information, (like a generational soul fragment or alter personality)? Thank you for your answer.

True

First, let’s establish that psychics are functionally operating as witches. They claim to speak to the departed, what is classically known as “mediumship” or “necromancy.” In Deuteronomy 18:10-12 God pronounces judgment on those who function as a sorcerer, a medium (psychic), or “one who calls up the dead.” Jehovah declares, “All who do these things are an abomination [detestable, abhorrent] to the Lord.”

The Bible is clear that psychics cannot speak directly to the dead because of the “great gulf” between the living and the dead (Luke 16:26). So, what are psychics doing? Some psychics are cleaver charlatans. Like stage magicians and so-called mentalists, they know how to trick their clients, using chicanery, deception. Some speak directly to demons who impersonate the dead.

Our International School of Exorcism teaches how, during inner healing, a deliverance minister may speak to the dissociated soul part of an ancestor, an identity genetically embedded in the DNA of the living. In this case, it is not the actual dead person but rather a state of consciousness which is accessed, a soul-part which appears to function as a living identity, the same as speaking to an alter identity of a person with dissociative identity disorder (DID/MPD). If, during the process of deliverance, it is possible to speak to such soul fragments, nothing prevents a psychic from possibly doing the same, especially if the client isn’t a Christian.

Whether by sophistry, chicanery, or clever metaphysics, some psychic tricks the unsuspecting, or really thinks he/she is speaking to dead, God’s judgment is the same. Revelation 21:8 warns that the lake of fire, Hell, awaits the “abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, and sorcerers.” All witchcraft and willful practice of the occult leads to eternal torment. The only escape is believing in the salvation of Jesus Christ and forsaking all psychic chicanery.

An Encouraging word: WALKING RIGHTEOUSLY

“Who may dwell in your sanctuary?” David asks (Psalm 15:1). Good question. The sanctuary is where God is, so David is really asking, “Who can walk in God’s presence?” The next verse answers: “He who does what is righteous.” In the midst of American feel-good theology and seeker-friendly evangelism, too many avoid the call to righteous, true character that comes from internal humility and external morality. Righteousness is what God does or does not see when he looks at us. To walk righteously you’ll need to drop the façade and allow others to see who God sees. Prayerfully, that will be righteousness and behaviorally consistency.

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.

A friend of mine sent me a news article about a satirical “obituary” that ran in the “London Times” about the death of common sense. I identified strongly with the writer’s examples of common sense being discarded when schools are required to get parental consent to administer an aspirin but cannot inform parents when a student wants to have an abortion. Another example of the decline of common sense was pointing out that these days you can’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault. 

I started thinking about the death of common sense in the church and came up with my own examples of the demise of rudimentary rationality. Christian common sense died when: 

• Pastors became promoters of political liberalism, wrapped in faux compassion. 
• Preachers became more concerned with audiences smiling at clever jokes rather than making them tremble in fear of hell.  
• Prosperity became a sign of divine approval instead of a blessing for obedience. 
• Angels started appearing to people for capricious communication instead of being sent from the Lord to guard and judge. 
• Strange dreams were claimed to be prophetically inspired musings to be deciphered instead of the result of late night gastronomical over-indulgence.  
• Deliverance was ostracized as unnecessary and the idea that Christians could have demons was deemed unbiblical.

Christian common sense is dying and being replaced by two illogical extremes. On one hand the extreme of hyper-Calvinist negates all human choice concerning salvation and while at the same time evangelical witch-hunting delegitimizes any occurrences of miracles and the supernatural. At the other end of the spectrum are ideas that suggest every political turn of events is apocalyptic and every word of prophecy heralds some newly discovered truth. 

What’s needed is a return to Christian common sense, the sense to preach and practice the simple gospel of telling the good news and setting the captives free. 

An Encouraging word: WITNESS EVERYWHERE

I was simply picking up my dry cleaning a couple of days ago, but I couldn’t keep silent. The clerk had a pentacle, a satanic symbol around her neck. “What’s that?” I asked. “It represents earth, wind, fire, water,” she said. “Actually no,” I countered, “it represents witchcraft. Are you a witch?” She was startled by my bluntness. Flustered for a moment she said, “Yes, I’m a pagan.” “Well I’m a Christian, and I need to warn you that what you’re involved with is dangerous,” I said seriously. Most Christians would have said nothing so as not to offend. But sometimes we need to risk being offensive to warn people who might not otherwise be warned. We wise, be prudent, don’t be obnoxious, but don’t be afraid to witness for Jesus everywhere.