Month: January 2019

Last year, a Dallas jury, sentenced a Hispanic, female minister to 99 years in prison for starving to death a small child in an exorcism gone wrong. Pastor Aracely Meza tortured a little boy named Benjamin to drive out his demons. Meza claimed the little boy had the demon of manipulation and starved the youngster, not allowing him to eat for 21 days until he was skin and bones. Meza eventually stopped the fast, but it was too late, and the child died from malnutrition. The baby wasn’t even hers. The boy belonged to a congregant from whom Meza had forcefully taken the victim.    

What are we to make of this? Religious devotion over the line? A mentally ill pastor exercising unreasonable authority over a family in her church? A legitimate attempt at deliverance gotten out of hand? A demonic act in the name of ridding demons?   

Perhaps what happened is a little of each. But the real problem may be the lack of established boundaries of ethical practices in ministry, which leads to dangerous assumptions about how to drive out the devil. Occasionally stories hit the press of other exorcisms gone wrong. Children beaten to death. Lye poured down the throats of victims to exorcise evil. And starvation techniques, like this Texas tragedy.   

We can blame pastor Meza or other misguided souls who are used by the devil to drive out devils. But perhaps there’s one more place to put blame: the failure of Christian leaders to speak openly and rationally about deliverance has created a moral vacuum which mentally deranged, self-styled exorcists exploit. When there is no theologically articulated standard of understanding about exorcism, false and distorted ideas of deliverance flourish, whether in Hollywood movies or cultic churches. Spiritually and psychologically sound measures of what constitutes legitimate demonic confrontation must be articulated so that distortions of deliverance do not result; otherwise, innocent victims may suffer. That’s why we established the International School of Exorcism, the public proclamation of a credible approach to casting out demons. By God’s grace we’ve set a standard by which inner healing, deliverance, and exorcism can be responsibly measured. Enroll today and learn the safe boundaries of spiritual warfare and avoid exorcism excesses.    

An encouraging word: RESPECT OLD BOUNDARIES  

There is some good advice in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 19:14): Do not move your neighbor’s boundary stone set up by your predecessors in the inheritance you receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess. I have some advice for youth, based on age and experience: Be careful what you disregard from previous generations. In this high-tech time there is a bit of cultural arrogance about dismissing the past as irrelevant. It has seeped into the church and extends to worship styles, behavioral standards, and theology. Don’t too casually dismiss the old boundaries. They may have been there for a good reason you can’t yet comprehend.

What is spiritual warfare? It is many things to many people who believe in a spiritual world. Here are some categories of religious belief and my view of their perspectives on spiritual warfare.

New Agers—Combating negative energy from emotionally psychic vampires.

Calvinists—Doing nothing to battle evil because, for the elect of God, Satan has already been defeated.

Charismatics—Proclaiming “prophetic words” without attempting to engage evil.

Neo-Charismatics—Soaking in prayer to avoid actual demonic engagement.

Fundamentalists—Erecting barriers of behavior to keep the saints safe.

Megachurch ministries—Evoking pleasant platitudes to existentially ignore spiritual bondage.

Liturgical communions—Finding safety in structure as a bulwark against spiritual uncertainty.

Catholics—Thinking an extra “Hail Mary” will take care of things.

International School of Exorcism alumni–Active spiritual engagement with the devil and his demons in confrontational combat.

You can’t engage in spiritual warfare unless:

You believe that Christians can have demons. How can you fight to rid a believer of spiritual attack unless you believe that the enemy can infiltrate the camp?

You are prepared to get down and dirty with the devil. War is hell. It is combat, conflict, and bold, engagement. It can be messy and strenuous.

You are sold out and all-in. The soldiers who win wars charge without fear of defeat and no thought of retreat.

You believe in actual demons who are active everywhere, every day. Evil spirits are relentless in their efforts to torment the people of God.

You accept the importance and necessity of exorcism to rid souls of invaded evil. In most cases interrogative engagement with demons is necessary to liberate the oppressed.

Real spiritual warfare is prayer and perseverance, fasting and faith. It requires knowing the Word, recognizing spiritual authority, and directly engaging the devil with inner healing, deliverance, and exorcism. It often demands demonic manifestations to get at the root of evil. Anything less may be spiritually helpful and hopeful, but it isn’t spiritual warfare. The Warrior of Christ who engages in spiritual warfare is combat ready, armed and dangerous, and prepared for confrontation with evil, without giving quarter or flinching in battle. Spiritual warfare is prayerfully facing real demons with all their malignancy and conquering them with a bold display of God’s power that puts them to an open shame. As Colossians 2:15 says, “Having disarmed principalities and power, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

An encouraging word: THE REAL WONDER OF HIS LOVE

If King David were alive today, he’d love to see deliverance. “Show the wonder of your great love,” he said in Psalm 17:7. Every time I see the devil defeated and cast to the Pit of Hell, I see God’s love in action. Every deliverance is a “wonder.” David wanted God to show his power, His awesomeness. Too many Christians today are content to put the Almighty on display for an hour a week, carefully choreographed, and suitably respectable. But like David, I want more than that. I want to see the wonder of who the Lord is, and His love in action by setting the captives free.