Month: August 2021

The American mission in Afghanistan has not succeeded as expected. That’s an understatement. And Afghanistan isn’t the only place marred by failure. In Iraq, just last week, twin suicide bombings killed 32 and wounded 110. Iranian backed factions still cause havoc in Iraq. In Afghanistan we all witnessed last week’s tragedies. All this instability is about more than Islamic fundamentalism. That part of the world is known for Muslim militancy, but the historic legacy of witchcraft may be an even more destabilizing influence. Babylon, centered in today’s Iraq, was the historic center of Mesopotamian idolatry more than 4,000 years ago. It was the cradle of earth’s witchcraft. Similarly, Afghanistan has a history of witchcraft and black magic curses. I have ministered to many Afghan emigres. They came to me as a Christian exorcist for help to break curses on their lives that their Muslim Imams, spiritual leaders, couldn’t cancel. Everywhere one goes in Afghanistan, especially in the countryside, fortune tellers operate. They often locate at Islamic shrines, such as the Hazra Ali Shrine, and even at the entrances to Muslim mosques.

All cross the Middle East psychics offer advice on a larger scale larger than in America. In Saudi Arabia divination is considered sorcery and is punishable by death. But in Afghanistan people constantly see to get rid of “jinns,” the Muslim word for demons or devils. These devils are believed to be intermediary beings with the will to choose good and evil. When evil they are under the control of Iblis (Satan). They can even shape shift as animals. Witches are known as “Jinn catchers.”

To get rid of their jinns, people wear amulets, perform animal sacrifices, and even seek out Islamic exorcists. Imams are called upon regularly to use supposedly magical quotations from the Koran to heal illnesses, acquire power, and bring good luck. They read dice, cards, palm leaves, and coffee grounds to ward off evil spirits. In next door Pakistan, astrologers have their own TV show. The leader of Pakistan, Afghanistan’s neighbor, is said to sacrifice a black goat every day to protect himself from black magic.

To expel a jinn, sorcerers in Afghanistan advise a diet of bread and black pepper along with sleeping on the ground. Some even bury themselves in earthen mounds.

Here’s the real spiritual issue Americans have faced in Iraq. Our military arrived with the idea that politics and guns could solve the country’s problems. Non-westernized Afghans see all difficulties as spiritual matters. The Taliban and their ilk have emphasized a worldview of supernaturalism, of Allah and jinns, and that is one reason we’re in the mess we’re in over there. It isn’t the Taliban who have won, the jinns have.

The scenes are seared in our memories. Our embassy in Saigon falling to the Viet Cong, a last minute attempt to destroy valuable documents, and desperate Americans being airlifted from the roof. Iran tormenting and torturing 66 Americans for 444 days in Iran. Now, desperate Afghans clinging to the sides of an airplane, some falling to their deaths thousands of feet in the air.

And there are more tragic images. Women lying bloody in the streets because of some Taliban infraction. Thousands of Americans fearing for their lives and wondering what their fate will be if left behind in Afghanistan. After hundreds of billions of dollars spent to stop Al-Qaeda and make them pay for 9/11, will we see new terrorist attacks in America? What will happen to Christians in Iran? What is the Christian response to thousands of Afghan refugees flooding America? Does this have any significance in Bible prophecy?

Hillsong, the Australian-based religious conglomerate, operates in 28 countries with more than 150,000 weekly attendees. It is now in the midst an explosive scandal. Founder, Brian Houston, faces charges in an Australian court of covering up the pedophilia of his late father, Frank. One of Frank’s victims, aged seven at the time, says the sexual abuse happened around 1970 and that his son, Brian Houston, knew about it and covered it up. The victim further alleges that he was “raped, choked, and brutalized.” It is also claimed that Frank, and later his son Brian, tried to buy off the victim with $10,000 in Australian dollars. Brian says the victim insisted, years ago, that the abuse not be made public. A criminal sentence could put the powerful pastor behind bars for five years.

Hillsong, as we know it today, grew out of Frank Houston’s megachurch in the 80s. At the time the elder Houston was also head of the Australian division of the Assemblies of God denomination. All this comes after Hillsong had to oust celebrity-obsessed pastor Carl Lentz from its New York City congregation after Lentz admitted to adultery. In Dallas, Hillsong had to close a church due to the pastor’s “failure to uphold the standards of Hillsong leadership.” In New Jersey, another Hillsong pastor resigned after texting a photo of himself to a church volunteer while wearing white exercise tights with nothing left to the imagination. Some say that this and other Hillsong scandals are endemic to the church culture of Hillsong.

Perhaps the whole truth isn’t known, and we must be careful about judgments without knowing all the facts, especially when the case against Brian Houston has yet to go to court. But some things we do know. Outlandishly extravagant lifestyles of Houston and other church leaders have been documented, based on the Hillsong’s prosperity gospel message. And more bombs of indiscretions may yet explode. But my concern is what’s going to be done about all of this. One thing is certain, deliverance and exorcism isn’t an option.

Brian Houston and Hillsong adamantly oppose the idea of Christians having demons and suffering from generational curses. On my last ministry tour of Australia, the word went out, I was told from the top-down, that no one in Hillsong leadership would be allowed to cooperate with or attend our meetings. But it’s now clear that, whatever the final truth about all this may be, there is a demonic problem at Hillsong, especially with the late Frank Houston. As an exorcist I can tell you, child molestation is demonic. Almost all perpetrators are demon possessed. Frank Houston needed an exorcism, but his theology kept him from it. And this curse may have passed on to Brian Houston. And if he doesn’t believe in curse breaking and deliverance, how will he and Hillsong get free from the curse?

I’m not saying that pastor Houston is like his father, but that the demons of his father are likely trying to destroy the good work that Hillsong has done to reach people for Christ. I may not agree with all that Hillsong does, but as the Apostle Paul commanded in Philippians 1:15-18, I praise God where Christ is preached. We must fervently pray for Hillsong during this trying time. Pray that those in the organization who sincerely follow Christ will be granted grace and patience for His will to be worked out. And pray that the leadership of this megachurch will wake up to the need of embracing deliverance and casting demons out of those in power who may be possessed.

Want to know if someone you care about has a demon? Are you concerned that you might have a demon? Don’t take your cues from Hollywood and look for spinning heads and levitation. Not everyone with a demon goes into screaming rages, foams at the mouth, speaks in strange languages, or becomes violent. In fact, the majority of demon possessed people act normal most of the time. Behavior that you might suspect is demonic may last only for a few minutes or seconds. The rest of the time, the demons are submerged doing their evil in stealth, waiting for an opportunity to deliver a lethal, spiritual blow.

So, how doyou know if you are demonized? For starters, go to www.demontest.org and take our free computerized analysis of whether you might have a demon. This will give you quick insights into previously undetected demonic dangers you might face in the future. If your score is high, immediately go online to www.boblarson.org and schedule an in-person or virtual encounter. When you do, here’s what you’ll discover as we’re face-to-face, in the flesh or on the screen.

After more than four decades of deliverance/exorcism ministry, I’ve learned to determine with reasonable accuracy if a person has a demon within the first 10-15 minutes of speaking with them. Most people that I detect have demons have already had some deliverance and were told that they didn’t have demons or that they could be delivered by healing prayers without interrogative commands to demons. In other words, even if demons were suspected they weren’t confronted and made to verbally and physically manifest.

How can I be so certain that someone has a demon? Here are a few key indicators. The more of these markers in a person’s life, the greater the chance of demonization. I look for a combination of at least two or more of these factors: illegitimate conception; a dysfunctional or abusive home life; ancestral history of drug abuse, violence, or occultism; personal involvement in New Age spiritualism; sexual abuse; drug addiction; loss of time; patterns of broken relationships; erratic behavior inconsistent with their normalized faith position; unreasonable amounts of chronic diseases; uncontrollable, episodic anger outbursts. No single factor itself indicates demonic possession, but if several of these negative indicators occur repeatedly, I

likely determine a demon is present. Assisting this process is the operation of spiritual gifts including “discerning of spirits” and words of “knowledge” and “wisdom” (First Corinthians 12: 8-10). This combination isn’t perfect, but it is spot on most of the time.

My book “Dealing with Demons” gives more insights into the forensic procedures I use to detect demons. Our International School of Exorcism and Advanced Academy of Deliverance teaches how to operate in these realms of information and revelation. There is no need for anyone who is demonized to continue suffering in bondage to Satan. Detecting the presence of demons is possible on both a practical and supernatural basis. Begin your road to freedom today by contacting our ministry to start the deliverance process. Your demons can be detected, and they can be cast out through the power of Jesus Christ.

Check out Amazon or wherever books are sold, and you’ll find scores of books on heaven. Many are about heaven, and many more about people who claim they’ve been there, at least temporarily. Some of these claims are from people involved in the occult and the New Age, often associating their heavenly encounter with near-death-experiences, referred to as NDEs. But some Christians say they have gone to heaven. These claims range from slightly ambiguous encounters with the angelic to full-blown meetings with apostles and prophets—even Jesus himself! Others offer to teach how any Christian can go there, almost at will. This is my personal take on this phenomenon.

Let me first state that as a Bible-based Christian I believe in Heaven. What I don’t do is take my cues about the reality of heaven from contemporary sources, no matter how well-intentioned they may be. I neither fully accept or reject personal NDEs or Christian claims of having gone to Heaven. Such assertions are highly personal and unverifiable. They also contain accounts that are largely extra-biblical, by that we mean they can’t be authenticated with Scripture. And I’ll take it a step further. When it comes to Christians who claim to have gone to Heaven, I have never read their books, never listened to their interviews, and never watched their internet sites. This personal choice is deliberate. As I approach the waning years of my life, I want what I believe about heaven to be based solely on Scripture, not influenced by an unproveable description of Heaven, no matter how sincere that account may be.

You may argue that there’s no harm in hearing these stories. But that’s my point, they are just someone’s subjective story. For example, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Apostle John all had a visitation of Heaven, and they didn’t describe it casually. They recorded words such as “I fell on my face,” “woe is me, I am unclean,” “no strength was left in me,” and “I fell at his feet as though dead.” As for dying and coming back to life we also have Scriptural confirmation: Zarephath’s son (1 Kings 17:17), the Shunammite woman’s son (2 Kings 4:18), the widow of Nain’s son (Luke 7:11), Jairus’s daughter (Luke 8:52), Lazarus (John 11), various holy people (Matthew 27), Tabitha (Acts 9:36), Eutychus (Acts 20:7) and Jesus himself (Mark 16:1). Do we really need to know more than this?

And if you want to know all that’s necessary to live for Heaven and long for Heaven, check out 2 Corinthians 5:8—to be absent from our present bodies is to be home with the Lord, and Philippians 1:22—to die is gain. There are streets of gold and angels in Heaven. There are loved ones there. Heaven is inhabited by the saints of the age. But one thing is absolutely certain. Demons don’t go to Heaven. As Revelation 21:8 declares, “The cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” That’s where the demons are, along with the unrepentant people they possessed. But this much we know from the Word of God, there are no demons in Heaven.