Month: October 2021

MARK 8:36-37: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” NIV

What WILL a man give in exchange for his soul? The age-old question Jesus asked 2000 years ago in Mark chapter eight has been answered by NETFLIX. A South Korean film production company has released a series called Squid Game on the network. According to this series, the price of a soul is about $40 million, depending on the latest US dollar exchange rate in South Korea. Nearly 200 million people have already watched the Game. The plot isn’t exactly ingenious. An aging and bored super-rich man joins forces with several of his equally bored colleagues and offers a $40 million prize to the winner of Squid Game. Exactly 456 entrants are allowed to accept the challenge. By the end of the first episode, more than half have been murdered in cold blood, their price of entry. Along the way, participants can opt out or continue for the mega million prize. Unbelievably many decide to continue risking their lives for a chunk of cash to escape poverty and financial failure. In the process they squander their moral equity by conniving to escape death and win the squid lotto. They have also effectively sold their souls in pursuit of the prize. But that is fiction. What’s real is that millions of viewers have risked opening the door of their souls to demons by watching the cursing, inhumanity, violence, and bloodshed. 

The screen writer based the idea on a childhood game named Squid. I know nothing about the origin of this youthful pastime in Korea, but I can tell you this. In the marine spirit-world the squid is a powerful demon. It is another form of the Leviathan spirit, along with the octopus spirit. Is the success of squid game due to the violent zeitgeist in which we live? Or is there serious demonic intentionality in developing and promoting this bloodthirsty, streaming series. If demons devised it, can you get a demon by watching it?

Here is the risk. Those watching without an understanding of spiritual warfare may become desensitized to the biblical view of life’s sacredness. I watched the first two episode so that I could do primary research and speak authoritatively. But afterwards I felt somewhat defiled and had to pray out of my mind the images of bloody bodies senselessly slaughtered. Some may see the squid game as nothing more than a social commentary on human selfishness. But Squid Game’s promotion of immorality and greed makes this series more than entertainment. It is ideologically demonic and capable of being a door of demon possession.

Since the 1960s, for nearly 70 years, doctors and psychologist have studied the effects of watching violence, especially how young minds are affected. Here is what researchers have concluded. When observing inhumane acts of aggression, especially murder, three things happen to mind seeing too much mayhem: 1) There is less sensitivity to the suffering of others. This lack of empathy results in less restraint on personal acts of violence. 2) Society at large seems more frightening. Seeing too many senseless acts of violence creates  anxiety which increases stress levels affecting mental and physical health. 3) The mind overloaded with bloodshed and gore is less likely to be restrained from personal acts of harm toward others. We see this with road rage, street rioting, and senseless acts of aggression. Consider the recent instance in which a woman on a subway was raped and passengers watched and did nothing to stop it. At least one person filmed it on their phone camera.

Jesus said in John 8:44 that Satan was a murderer from his beginning. Murder is not war, self-defense, or restraint of criminal activity. Murder is unlawfully killing someone with premeditation. In Squid Game, it’s even worse. Murder is methodical, systematic, intentional, and organized. It’s like standing in a Nazi death camp and watching Jews machine-gunned and thrown into open pits.

To watch something like this for a cheap adrenalin rush is to deliberately open the door of one’s soul to Satan, the original murderer. Don’t argue that it’s only make-believe. So is pornography but viewing lust can poison the mind and damn the soul. Jesus said so in Matthew 5:28. If you are a Christian and have watched all or most of the Squid Game episodes of gratuitous murder, you need spiritual cleansing – maybe deliverance.

How do you know when a problem is primarily psychological or spiritual? Whether you need to see a therapist or an exorcist? Does the choice matter so long as you get some help for a vexing issue in your life? As an exorcist with a ministry spanning nearly 50 years, and as the founder of an online school of exorcism, I can assure you that the decision of what sort of help you engage matters a lot. Some problems are better dealt with by counseling, at least initially. Other kinds of dysfunction won’t get much better by seeing a therapist. The situation may be so dark and demonic that only a highly trained exorcist will solve the problem. But how does the average person know which road of help to go down?

The initial choice of intervention depends on the severity of the individual’s state and what aspect of the human condition is most affected. For example, if one struggles with reading the Bible or feels repelled by holy objects like a cross or Bible, the problem is more likely spiritual. That person needs to contact an exorcist. If, on the other hand, the issue is an eating disorder or a compulsive obsession, then a therapist may be the best place to start. Usually exorcists aren’t equipped to handle matters of neurological or psychological disordering. Likewise, therapists tend to shy away from solving conditions such as seeing a ghost or paranormal events like the terrifying movements of the planchette on a Ouija Board. When a demon possessed person seeks a therapist for what is basically a spiritual issue the clinician may end up essentially counseling a demon. Likewise, the exorcist who tries to solve an issue like attachment disorder or PTSD by commanding a demon to leave may do more harm than good.

In truth, both disciplines need each other. I’ve been told by psychiatrists and psychologists who have spent time watching me work with a variety of clients that what I do is often 75% psychological help without the technical framework of a clinical paradigm. This is known to those in deliverance ministry as “inner healing.” The other 25% is direct confrontation with a demon, an interjected evil identity which seeks to emotionally, physically, and spiritually hijack the host. As explained in our School of Exorcism, this approach seeks to identify the demon’s point of entry and right of habitation so these legal claims can be removed by prayer. Then the demon is cast out.

If you are wondering whether the help needed by you or someone you care about should begin with a therapist or an exorcist, contact us to schedule a personal, virtual session. We can quickly determine whether what you’re facing is best served by a process of emotional healing, curse breaking, and the biblical commands of exorcism or whether you first need clinical assistance for things such as medication as in the case of delusional psychosis, for example. I, or one of our high trained ministry associates, have the experience to give you suggestions on whether your primary approach should be spiritual.

In fact, all problems are ultimately spiritually grounded, even when mental instability seems to be the core problem. Prayer changes things, even with the most profound cases of psychological abnormality. The church and medical science need each other. Doctors and exorcist can be complimentary. We don’t need to be oppositional. James 5:16 says, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed (KJV).” This scripture espouses the best of both worlds, the therapist’s view of mental health and the exorcist’s intentionality of deliverance from evil. And this mutual accommodation is a great way to bring wholeness and health to every individual tormented by emotional disequilibrium or actual demons.  

The headline last week concerning actor Will Smith was that he didn’t practice monogamy in his marriage to Jada Pinkett Smith. But the story unraveled further from there into complete moral insanity. From his sitcom start as the Fresh Prince to blockbuster appearances in the films “Independence Day” and “Men in Black,” Smith was once declared to be the most bankable star in Hollywood, with eight consecutive movies grossing over $100 million. Sadly, he has now become known for going public about his private sex life. In a “GQ” magazine interview he admitted to being unfaithful with his wife. He also noted that his wife was adulterous, including a public affair with August Alsina, a rapper nearly half her age.

Smith was raised in a Christian home but has strayed far from that. Worse yet, his three children have to watch this debacle played out in the press with an international airing of dirty laundry and disgusting turpitude. Smith defends his unusual marriage by saying that his wife was raised in a family with “unconventional relationships.” This means that Jada’s moral compass was skewed by rampant sin in her family of origin. Will says that for his part, marriage should not be “thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.” He went on to say, “Marriage for us can’t be a prison” and that “we have given each other trust and freedom.” Worse yet he describes his moral insanity as “the highest definition of love.”

This kind of double-talk, Hollywood-speak, got still worse when Smith admitted to his fantasy of having a harem of famous women. He got the idea by working with a tinsel-town so-called “relationship coach.” What? A relationship mentor giving guidance that includes encouraging multiple sexual partners while married with three children? Moral insanity!

As to his Christian upbringing, Smith went on to say that his former biblical beliefs were that evil thoughts were a sin according to the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:28 that to look with deliberate lust is sin. Smith now says, “even acting out on an impure thought didn’t make me a piece of s***.” Insanity. Evil. Because Smith was raised to believe in biblical morality, this extreme departure from moral truth can only be described as demonic. I’ve encountered many times evil spirits who go by the assignment of their names, such as Deception, Confusion, and Perversion. Will Smith badly needs an exorcism of these demons. It’s the only way he’ll ever completely escape his deliberately embraced moral insanity. And if you think Smith’s moral compass is OK, you also need an exorcism.

Since June of this year, millions around the world have been intrigued by the ongoing story of social-media influencer Gabby Petito and her boyfriend/fiancé Brian Laundrie. The two of them remodeled a van and set out across America living in their vehicle, what their generation calls the “van-life.” Through social-media, Gabby delighted her followers with videos and photos of her trek starting in New York, going through America’s heartland, then on to Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. But as the journey progressed, footage emerged questioning whether all was well. In Moab, Utah police stopped the two after witnesses had seen Laundrie slap Petito. The police questioned Gabby who, at first, admitted she’d been struck and bruised. Then she backed off that claim. Women in abusive relationships often blame themselves. The couple went on their way until Gabby’s postings stopped. Then Laundrie suddenly returned home to Florida, disappearing into a nearby swamp area. On September 19, Gabby’s remains were discovered in Grand Teton National Park.

There is no reason to believe that Gabby was anything other than a vivacious young woman in love, living her internet dream. There is ever reason to believe that Laundrie may have not been the man of her dreams, or that somewhere along the way he went through a profound personality change. Whoever killed Gabby, to take the life of a lovely 22-year-old was a demonic act. If Laundrie did it, was Gabby fooled by the person he seemed to be, not realizing that he had a dark, demonized hidden self? Evil spirits are clever to hide themselves, and even the host person may not realize that something satanic lurks inside. That’s why we say EVERYONE needs deliverance. But the purpose of this blog is to draw lessons from this tragedy so that no other young woman, or man, becomes the victim of a love affair gone wrong. Here are my warnings and takeaways from this sad saga.

1. DON’T BE DUPED BY A QUASI-COMMITTMENT RELATIONSHIP
   We live in a world of shallow commitments. Couples move in together without marriage, often with little investigation into the person they are cohabiting with. They form soul bonds, intimate sexual connections, and the semblance of permanency when in fact the other person in the relationship is in it for the satisfaction of the short haul. Without the long-term promise of holy matrimony, an individual can become the victim of short-term sexual or financial exploitation. Marriage is no guarantee of lasting love, but it is a better shot at real happiness than a non-obligatory arrangement where either party can walk away at any moment. Too many young women want out of a dysfunctional family and they are fooled by a smoothing talking guy who offers male affirmation only to get control of a woman’s body and mind. Even engagement isn’t a guarantee. Before you live in sin with someone, in any circumstance, including a van, walk down that marriage aisle first. It’s God’s way and it increases your chances of success. The latest statistics indicate that couples who marry stand a 40% chance of divorce, but those who cohabit have a 56% chance of breaking up. And those who live together and then marry stand a greater chance of divorce than those who marry before moving in. Living in sin for an extended time gives the devil legal rights to create all kinds of long-term misery. Getting married gives you better odds at success in a relationship, and it might keep you from suffering domestic abuse, injury, or even death.
2. IF A PARTNER PHYSICALLY ABUSES YOU, GET OUT IMMEDIATELY
   The first time a live-in partner, or a spouse, threatens you or strikes you needs to be the one and only last time. In most cases that should end the relationship quickly in the event of cohabitation. In marriage, it should mean immediate legal separation and counseling. There can never be any excuse for physical altercations in a romantic relationship, married or otherwise, even dating. I have counseled thousands of people, usually women, who didn’t heed the warning sign of a partner or spouse who crossed that line. They always suffered later. That kind of violence never de-escalates on its own. It ALWAYS escalates unless there is immediate intervention by an outside party with the professional skills to understand abusive behavior. Such actions are often learned in the family context. If your wife, husband, or live-in spent childhood and/or adolescence seeing parents pummel one another, especially a man getting physical with a woman, most romantic partners will act that out at some point in the relationship. They need serous therapy/counseling plus inner healing and deliverance. We know nothing of Brian Laundrie’s home life, but I’m 100% positive it wasn’t good. He likely would never have struck Gabby unless he had witnessed bad behavior in his family of origin. Know the family dynamics of the person you are involved with and get out if there is any hint that their home life included screaming, yelling, throwing things, or physical violence. See a counselor and deliverance minister first before you unpack your bags before marriage or get in the close confinement of a van for months on end. 
3. DON’T BE SEDUCED BY THE LURE OF SOCIAL-MEDIA FAME.
   The new millennium standard of stardom is different from any age before. To gain notoriety in the past, an individual needed to have at least some measure of talent and preparation for fame. Today, our children can be morally blinded by the overnight success of TIK TOK recognition, often aided by nothing more than a sexy image or outrageous conduct. The more bizarre the better. Going viral has replaced ability, education, and maturity. Becoming a so-called “influencer” is more important to today’s teens than a college education and a stable career path. This shallowness lures young people into taking chances with their future in exchange for short-term notoriety gained by sexiness or craziness. As an example, instead of hitting the books in a classroom or preparing for a skill that would last a lifetime, Gabby chose to text from a moving piece of metal, her mobile home shared with a man who now appears to be narcissistic psychopath. Unfortunately, she is not unlike many of her peers. Even in good families the alluring power of social media can quickly pull a good kid off course. What’s on the internet is often not only addictive, it is demonic. Heed the words of 1 John 2:15-17 KJV: Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

And let us pray that Brian Laundrie is brought to justice for what he knows or what he did. And let us pray for the broken-hearted parents of Gabby Petito who have suffered an immeasurable loss.