Month: October 2022

Many people seek my help for deliverance from voices in their heads. If you or a loved one suffer from this phenomenon, heed carefully what I am going to share. It could be lifesaving. If you’ve ever wondered, “Are the voices in my head demons?” there are crucial things you need to understand. The Bible doesn’t directly address this matter though it’s likely that people in the time of Christ suffered from auditory messages that were “heard” in the mind. Of course, people in Palestine wouldn’t have understood psychological explanations since these aspects of consciousness were not yet explored. We can assume that demonic cases such as Legion in Mark chapter five must have involved this form of mental torment.

Such happenings today are not rare. In fact, they are quite common. Those experiencing voices in the mind report that what they hear falls into one of several categories. The voices may be blasphemous, self-condemning, even encouraging. They may suggest immoral or violent acts. They may also claim to be God or the voice of an angel. How can you distinguish if what is going on is from a natural or supernatural origin, or whether it’s a malfunction of the brain, a form of mental delusion. Psychotic people, those who are mentally ill and out-of-touch with reality, hear voices. But perfectly sane and well-adjusted people may also experience these incidents from time to time. In my counseling and deliverance ministry experience, I’ve found that voices usually come from one of these sources:

#1—DEMONS: These voices curse, speak profanely, and seek to turn the victim from the Lord.

#2—MENTAL UNREALITIES: These voices suggest things which are factually inaccurate, such as “The government has planted a computer chip in my head to track my movements.”

#3—DISSOCIATED ALTER PERSONALITY STATES: These are disconnected aspects of the person’s own mind/consciousness and were likely created by some known or unknown trauma.

#4—DISSOCIATED SOUL TRANSFERENCES (DST): These are mind-control interjects of consciousness from a living person, such as individual seeking witchcraft revenge or trying to dominate the thoughts of the person they target.

#5—ANCESTRAL DISSOCIATED SOUL PART S (AGD): These voices are genetically inherited aspects of consciousness from a past ancestor, embedded in the DNA by being attached to a generational curse.

All these categories of explanation are discussed in the course studies of Bob Larson University.

It takes a highly trained deliverance minister to analyze what is going on. In the preliminary courses of Bob Larson University, we teach the finer aspects of evaluating mental health issues for the lay person. Sadly, most deliverance ministers jump to the conclusion that voices in the mind are demonic and immediately rebuke them and try to cast them out. That may be helpful if the source of the voices is demons, but what if it is an alter personality state or one of the mental conditions I have listed? Great harm can be done that might tip the person over the edge to greater mental instability.

Here are some quick questions to ask the person suffering voices:

Do the communications suggest ungodly actions? That is more likely demonic

Do the voices self-condemn? Self-recriminating voices may be dissociative disorder identities that accuse the individual because of false interpretations of past abuse.

Do the voices claim to be angels, aliens, past lives, or disembodied entities? These are almost always from a satanic source.

Does the voice claim to be from God or even an utterance of Jesus Christ? These are usually deceptions from interjections from evil spirits and must be forced to respond to the test of 1 John 4:1-3 to “test the spirits” regarding the incarnation of Christ. As you can see there is no simple answer to the sources of voices in the mind because there are so many variables and possibilities. Don’t try to understand this on your own. You likely can’t objectify your own thoughts to identify the source. I’ve dealt with thousands of such cases, and I encourage you to contact our ministry for a virtual or personal encounter with me or one of our associate ministers. We don’t have all the answers, but at least we know some of the pitfalls to avoid. A Christian counselor with mental health training can be helpful, especially if such a person understands dissociative identity disorder and deliverance. With good guidance and prayer, the voices in your head can be identified, silenced, and even expelled if they are demonic. But as the adage says, “Don’t try this on your own and don’t do this at home.”

The name Halloween is short for “hallowed eve.” This harkens back to when the Catholic church declared November 1 to be All Saints Day, in 835 A.D. Thus, the hallowed evening, the night before was contracted to the more simple form, Halloween. What images come to mind with Halloween? Death, darkness, gloom, doom. Zombies, the undead, witches, ghosts, spiders, skeletons. I issue a challenge. Name one redeeming aspect of Halloween. It’s a day all about evil. Halloween is the Devil’s Day.

Halloween is also the second most important day for classical Satanists, second only to one’s birthday. (The birthday comes first because Satanists are all about being self-centered.) It’s the high unholy day of witchcraft, dating back to the third century B. C. and the ancient Druids of Ireland and Celtic Gaul. It’s choice of date was rooted in agrarian cultures for whom this time of year was a season of cold and increasing darkness. It was believed to be the time when the veil between the living and the dead was most thin. It was a season when dead ancestors could come back to haunt the living, to trick them unless they were treated.

If Halloween is indeed the devil’s day, why did Satan need a particular day to focus on evil? The answer is simple. Satan abides by what I call the Law of Conservation of Evil Energy. You see, the devil isn’t omnipotent. God alone is all powerful, all the time. Not a single day since creation has the Almighty been bereft of his total power over creation. He has always had on every day unlimited power and authority. (Authority is the right to act and power is the ability to enforce an action. For example, a policeman may pull you over for speeding because he has the authority to do so. His badge and gun means he also has the power to make you stop.)

Omnipotent comes from the Latin omnis” meaning “all” and potens meaning “powerful.” Though the word omnipotent isn’t in the Bible, the word “Almighty” is. It appears in virtually every book of the Old Testament and a total of 345 times in the Bible. El Shaddai means “God most powerful” or “God Almighty.” Being omnipotent means God can do what He wants when HE wants to do it, except that he cannot do what is logically inconsistent with His nature. He can’t make the Earth flat or a round circle square. Most important, he can’t forgive sin without a sacrifice as it says in Hebrew 9:22: “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission. (Remission in a biblical sense means forgiveness.)

At some point in antiquity, Satan selected the autumnal season which we know as Halloween as the time to marshal his forces. We don’t really know what the demonic logic was, but we do see the consequences of this choice. Horror movies of fear and fright are everywhere. Symbols of witchcraft and divination abound. Death and terror are on everyone’s mind. The devil must conserve his evil energy. He can’t do this at the same intensity every day. People would tire of it. It wouldn’t be “special” anymore to dress your child as a witch and mimic haunting spirts of the netherworld. But one day each year, and in fact the space between September 1 and October 31, is the time when fearfulness and dread, vampires and ghosts are most prevalent.

I may sound like a curmudgeon, but I don’t even like churches trying to co-opt the day with a “fall festival” of fun and games. Why acknowledge the night at all? However, even Protestants can honor the saints of old. That isn’t exclusively a Catholic thing. How about spending the evening readiing the Epistles of Paul? There’s a saint we can all honor. As for the rest of you, keep your conical hats and witches’ brooms. I won’t want your bats and “boos,” your tall tales and haunted houses, apparitions, and spooky owls. We declare with Joshua (24:15), “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” On Halloween and every day.

The curses you’ve spoken in life may come back — back with a vengeance! You may think that this doesn’t apply to you, but consider all the angry, condemning words you’ve spoken. Some were uttered before you were a Christian and some after. If you became a Christian later in life, there may be hundreds of people you cursed. How many times did you tell someone to go to hell? How many GDs did you shout. How many FU’s came out of your mouth? If you’re a Christian now, you may not think those old expletives need dealt with. Certainly, if you repented, your sins are forgiven. But the power of curses you uttered may still be headed your way. I’ll explain the three steps in the implementation of a curse. First let’s consider some curses we all need to break.

• #1 – The curse of sin is spoken of in Genesis chapter three. That curse is broken by confession, baptism, and holy living. Every person needs to break this curse.
• #2 – Cursing one’s father or mother brought the death penalty in the Old Testament (Exodus 21:7). If you did that as a rebellious youth, it needs to be specifically renounced.
• #3 – Idolatry is cursed (Deuteronomy 27:15). If you have, or have had, statues of Buddha, images of Hindu gods, idols of entertainment, undue adoration of religious personalities, all these things can be images of evil with curses that need broken.
• #4 – Deuteronomy also calls incest and bestiality curses. God curses certain kinds of sexual behavior.

But what about thoughts and words? Both precede actions. James 1:15 speaks of lust being conceived in the mind. In fact, all curses start with a thought. That thought can be injected by the devil into your brain, or if may be the expression of evil notions you’ve allowed to germinate without spiritual discipline.

After the thought of a curse, the next step in the progression is words. You may be angry with someone and harbor ungodly notions in your mind, but the matter becomes ratified when you speak words of hate, bitterness, or wishing misfortune.

The final step of a curse is acting it out. You may do that by seeking revenge or by sabotaging the person who is the object of your vitriol. Sadly, some Christian who have not properly disciplined their speech utter curses with horrible intentions. As James 3:5 says of the human tongue, “How great a matter a little fire kindles.”

What about the curse coming back on you? The Bible doesn’t specifically address the boomerang effect of a curse, but Jesus warned in Matthew chapter seven about the consequences of judging others. He stated that the measure by which we judge we shall also be judged. The curse you’ve spoken against someone else is the same standard of retaliation by which you will be measured. Consider these warnings from the Book of Proverbs (NIV):

• 15:1 – “A harsh word stirs up anger.”
• 12:18 – “Reckless words pierce like sword.”
• 29:11 – A fool gives full vent to his anger.”

The danger of a spoken curse is when the one hurling the invectives takes it a step further and acts on it. You can a curse by going to a psychic for a revenge curse, consulting a witchdoctor for a ceremony to bring suffering, or asking a voodoo/Santeria priest/priestess for a voodoo doll. The thoughts, words, and actions of curses you’ve invoked in your past may come back to haunt you someday.

Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind any curses you uttered or acted upon before you were saved. If God impresses on you a particular person you cursed, go to them, apologize, and ask forgiveness. Take back what you spoke, place it under the blood of Jesus, and declare that it’s power over you is broken. In that way, you won’t need to fear that the curses of your words and action against others may come back to torment you.

WARNING: SEXUALLY EXPLICIT MATERIAL NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN

You might think that as an exorcist I mostly deal with behavior associated with the New Age, addictions, demonic attacks, and spiritual rebellion. These kinds of topics represent the majority of my ministry sessions. But I also spend time working with couples, praying to save their marriages in crisis. That’s why Laura and I wrote the book “Set Your Family Free – Breaking Satan’s Assignments Against your Household.” Many times, we minister as a married couple to pray with other couples in crisis. By God’s grace we’ve been able to rescue them from the brink of divorce. Here are important things that we have learned.

As you might expect, demons play a major role in destroying marriages. Especially the spirit of Jezebel! Please get my book on the Jezebel demon and understand how this evil spirit interferes in marriages. Most marriages in peril have neglectful behavior, generational curses, or one of the partners experiences demonic possession. Usually, the effect of evil spirits is aided by systemic behavioral problems in the relationship. Counseling experience has taught me that a significant number of marriages fail because proper systems of respect and communication aren’t in place. We teach couples how to reconnect by offering practical advice to correct faulty relationship systems. Such difficulties are usually the result of dysfunctional families of origin with one or both partners. Many of you need to meet with me and Laura for help with you and your current or future spouse. Consider scheduling a marriage encounter today.

What I’m about to say may come as a surprise to some. But it is based on data I have acquired over decades of ministry. I’ve discovered that more than half of Christian marriages facing difficulties are struggling with sexual issues! These matters in question often are the result of one or more of these three false assumptions:

1) The wife is responsible for keeping the sexual behavior godly and relationally functional.

2) The wife must never refuse her husband’s advances or his choice of sexual activities lest he then turns to pornography or is attracted to other women.

3) A wife’s sexual pleasure is not as important as that of her husband since men are more visual and physical about sex.

Let me state clearly that all three of these assumptions are damaging to a marriage. Ephesians 5:25 says that husbands are to love their wives “as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.” The ESV says “gave Himself up for her.” The Living Bible says, “as Christ showed the church when He died for her.” To be blunt, the husband ought to be willing to die for his wife, in or out of the bedroom. In reference to my three points above, let me restate them as truths which may correct marriage problems.

1. The husband is responsible for keeping sex pure and relationally connected. He should spend adequate time apart from sex seeking to bond with his wife and serve her needs. He should romance her, make her feel important instead of making sex a performance for his personal pleasure. Remember the adage, “Sex begins in the kitchen.” This means that simple tasks like doing the dishes and taking out the trash are part of the love language of a woman.
2. A wife has the right to say no to sex. Sometimes a woman may not wish to engage in conjugation for any number of reasons, so long as she is not “defrauding” the relationship (1 Cor. 7:5). Pregnancy, health issues, and emotional conditions may make sex uncomfortable for a time. This is no excuse for the husband to turn to pornography. Counseling may be needed, but erotic visual stimulation on the internet isn’t going to help. In fact, it can form a virtual soul-tie leading to demonization. We help many couples overcome the addition to porn.
3. The sexual pleasure of a wife deserves equal attention. Satisfaction and emotional connection are just as important to a woman as it is for a man. As stated earlier, the husband’s responsibility is to give up himself for his wife. In fact, her pleasure should be more important than his. Proverbs 5:19 – READ IT – is about mutual satisfaction, not masculine supremacy.

This blog isn’t the final word on sex in marriage. It’s a far too complex an issue to be reduced to a short commentary. But I pray that what I’ve shared shatters these faulty presumptions. Failure to be sensitive to the truth about sex can lead to pornography, affairs, and emotional damage to the children who may sense the marital disconnect. The spirit of Jezebel must not become a third party to any marriage, seeking to destroy a union solemnized in the eyes of God and man.

Everyone on YouTube is an expert. Just asks them. They will tell you. No matter what your problem in life, they have an answer. I call this the arrogance of the uninformed. In times past, before the advent of social media, our spiritual and cultural touchstones were pastors, priests, educators, the educated, and the experienced. Today, any 20 or 30-something with a microphone, a ring light, and camera can exposit on anything with apparent confidence. They know something you don’t and for an algorithm they will tell you. If their self-proclaimed knowledge about anything and everything is just hubris, its laughable. But when the topic is spirituality, it can be deadly and deceiving. When what goes on the internet has no proctor and no filter, millions can be misguided instantly.

Scan what is trending any day and hear the voices of certitude. No qualifiers. No documentation. No certification. Remember the adage, “If it’s in print it must be true.” Today, “If it’s on the internet, it must be so.” It can be funny or frustrating if the topic is something like “how to eat burnt toast” or the “50 best ways to leave your lover.” But when the topic has eternal consequences and the pundit is cloaked in spiritual authority, that is downright dangerous. That is why we need to know how to spot a false prophet, a purveyor of spiritual error who seems perfectly trustworthy. 

I’m not speaking about the biblical ways of determining a false prophet. That’s another topic, such as the prophets who said God told them that Trump would win. Most of them are still giving forth other prophecies. Words and result must match. Deuteronomy 18:22 puts it this way in the NIV:  If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. In this blog I’m speaking of false prophets in a broader sense — internet experts who make unsupportable claims. Here are some examples.

1. The theological “expert” on spiritual gifts. He quotes Bible verse after Bible verse without any empirical evidence for his conclusions. I call this exegesis without evidence. Are spiritual gifts for today? Are 300 million Pentecostals and another 350 million charismatics all misguided? To say that some are imbalanced or that a faction is misled is one thing. But dismissing hundreds of millions of people who claim a valid, supernatural relationship with God is disingenuous. Many are Catholics, liturgical adherents, and former cessationists who now embrace what they once derided.
2. Preachers who claim that Christians can’t have demons and exorcisms aren’t needed. I have documented more than 50,000 case studies of exorcisms spanning five decades. Yet not one naysayer who denies deliverance has ever sat by my side for a day and witnessed the agony of the victim’s spiritual torment and their joy from being set free. Almost all of these clients are verifiably saved people who manifested demons.  Deniers of deliverance need to engage in spiritual battle, roll up their sleeves, and help restrain a spirit of murder with supernatural strength. Until they are willing to do that, they speak as false prophets.
3. The false prophets of the New Age. These are the worst. They prey on people who are often broken and vulnerable. They promise that this crystal or that chakra balance will solve everything. And when that doesn’t work, they advise that you call up your kundalini, astral travel to another dimension, or meditate until you are immersed in the universe. They never give full disclosure that many people who have done this have had mental breakdowns; they become psychotic; they leave family and friends for some guru, or, worse yet, became invaded by evil spirits.
4. Itinerant preachers who have no accountability. I spend much time ministering to demonized people who got their demons from someone that they thought was a man or woman from God. Prophet so-and-so laid hands on them and prophesied great things. Before you give in to gullibility about such self-proclaimed prophets, consider this: Who is their mentor? What is their theological education? Have they written books or published texts of their teaching that can be reviewed? To whom are they accountable? Is there a credible Christian leader who can vouch for them? How long have they been in ministry? What other prophecies have they uttered that didn’t come to pass? When it comes to prophecies, there is no substitute for due diligence and a little research.

Remember if a prophet promises and doesn’t deliver, he isn’t speaking with the Lord’s imprimatur. If his facts aren’t correct, if his information isn’t well researched, and if his doctrine is metaphysical or spiritualist, run away from such a person. They are not speaking for God, and they may be prophesying for the devil.