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“On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” The words of hymnist Edward Mote in 1834 don’t seem to carry much weight today. Neither do the lyrics of contemporary artist Jeremy Camp, “Give me Jesus, You can have all this world, Just give me Jesus.” Today’s gospel seems to be a “Jesus Plus” salvation. Jesus plus yoga; Jesus plus Quigong; Jesus plus Tai Chi; Jesus plus reiki; Jesus plus enneagrams (to read my blog “Beware the Enneagram” July 16, 2018, CLICK HERE.)  

The denial of deliverance is at the core of this dilemma. People in the pew are suffering. Many are under attack from pornography, drug addiction, and alcoholism. Marriages are falling apart. Sexual dysphoria is rampant. And the answer of too many preachers is, you’ll be all right if you just, “Confess this,” or “Prophesy that,” or “Attend this Conference.” But these answers don’t work if you have demons. Positively confess all you want, but if you have demons they aren’t leaving. Follow the prophecies of the latest and greatest seer to come along, but if you’re living under a curse, nothing really going to change much. Do Holy Yoga, but downward-dog won’t make Jezebel go. Balance your energies, but Leviathan isn’t leaving. Match all nine characteristic of your occult, astrology-based enneagram numbers and you’ll still live in torment. You can do any of these latest evangelical fads and your life will still spiral downward UNLESS YOU GET AN EXORCISM.  

Christians need to stop assuaging their demons, appeasing their evil spirits, and placating their curses. Real demons don’t leave unless there is real deliverance. I’m not talking about politically correct soaking prayers or demonic expulsions without manifestations. Frankly, I don’t know which is worse, those who don’t believe in deliverance or those who say they do and practice a wimpy, watered-down version that offends no one and accomplishes nothing.  

Away with all the gimmicks and syncretism of adopting the devil’s devices, like yoga, in a pseudo-sanctified setting. We don’t need any more of this Jesus Junk. Just give me Jesus, Jesus is enough! 

An encouraging word: GOD IS JUST

“Does God pervert justice?” So said Bildad the Shuhite (one of “Job’s comforters”) with a rhetorical flourish (Job 8:3). Of course not. God is just, but when His justice is not enacted forcefully and quickly, evil flourishes. Today it seems that the balance of justice all too often tips in favor of criminal rights, rather than public good. But all who do evil will someday answer to the Supreme Magistrate, the Lord himself. Be sure that you act justly, because the Lord judges righteousness by the measure of his Son, Jesus Christ. And only His grace will stay the hand of condemnation for what we all deserve for our unrighteousness.  

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.

George Whitefield was an English, Anglican cleric and pioneer of Methodism and, what we know today as, evangelicalism. Short, portly, and cross-eyed he became the most famous clergyman of the 18th century, and sparked the American revival known as the First Great Awakening. I was reminded of his legacy last week while ministering in Washington, D. C. and visiting the Museum of the Bible. Whitefield felt called of God to sail to America and traveled the colonies on horseback, calling America to repentance. In seven fruitful years of ministry he preached more than 18,000 sermons to 10 million people, mostly standing in the open air.  

Benjamin Franklin, who befriend Whitefield, once estimated an audience of 30,000 people, standing outdoors, smitten with a sense of sin and repentance. In the Museum, I saw a replica of the folding pulpit platform that he’d stand on to be heard above the crowd. Without the benefit of a microphone he could be heard 500 feet away, imploring sinners to turn from their wickedness. But not all received him well. A woman assaulted him with a pistol. Dead cats were thrown at him. A man nearly killed him with a brass-headed cane. One listener climbed a tree to urinate on Whitefield.  

Worse yet, other clergymen almost unanimously rejected him, mainly because he railed against their hypocrisy and anaemia. Colonial pastors forbade him to speak in their churches. Critics called him a “sorcerer” and a “self-seeking creature” and condemned him for believing in “instant conversions.” Ten pamphlets were printed condemning him. A prominent newspaper called him “blasphemous.” The printer in England who had first printed his book, eventually called him “a devil, the beast, the Antichrist.” He responded that his enemies where like “Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Bible.” 

Whitefield was my kind of guy. I believe that if the churches of his time had not silenced the ministry of deliverance, he would have been out in those open fields casting out demons. I don’t have his folding pulpit, but I do have YouTube, and the internet allows me, like Whitefield, to stand above the masses and cry out with the message of freedom from sin and Satan. The students of our International School of Exorcism are part of his legacy. Together let us demonstrate the courage of Whitefield’s legacy, shouting to all within earshot, that Jesus saves and sets the captives free! 

An encouraging word: BE TRUE TO YOUR WORD

Scripture tells us that God blesses a man who speaks the truth and honors his word, even when it is hard to do so (Psalm 15:4 “keeps his oath even when it hurts” NIV). We’ve all been disappointed by Christians who promised things and didn’t come through or said one thing and did another. We have high expectations of our brethren in Christ, and rightfully so. We expect them to be different from the “world” and so does God. Think of what you’ve said to your fellow Believers and make sure that you’ve followed through. It’s a great way to keep friends and a certain way to keep God’s favor. 

Sunday morning at church should be a time of inspiration and motivation. Two weeks ago, on a rare weekend home with the family, it was a time of frustration for me. My hopes were high when the pastor announced he’d be speaking on Ephesians chapter six, “The Armor of God.” The church is evangelical, a market-driven, slogan-heavy, offend-no-one kind of place. Even so, how could they compromise Paul’s teaching about the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, the Word of God. I was suckered in even further, when the pastor declared, “Spiritual warfare is real. We’re in a war with the devil, and we need to be prepared to fight.” 

I wondered if this church had undergone an epiphany of revelation about demons and the devil. Then, the pastor laid down the ground rules: “In all my years of ministry [30 or so] I’ve never encountered a demon, but I have been confronted by demonic systems of belief.” He assured his listeners that no Christian could be possessed by demons. I expected that. He added some Calvinistic flavor, by pointing out the “concurrency” between “personal choice” and “election.” (Students of our School of Exorcism will recognize this biblical slight-of-hand; if you are elected by God to be saved and have no choice in the matter, it stands to reason that God would not “elect” someone with demons, so if you are a Christian, you can’t have demons.) 

So, if he’d never run into a demon, why teach spiritual warfare and the armor of God? The pastor explained that our fight isn’t against Satan and his demons but against a “satanic system of belief.” He moved from the concrete of real demons and a real devil to the philosophical abstract of a system of satanic belief. Very clever. No need to resist, rebuke, or cast out demons. According to this pastor, a Christian only needs to “by faith put on the armor of God” and all resistance of evil will go away. I give this pastor credit for such a clever means of denying the existential reality of the demonic and summarily dismissing deliverance.

There are so many fallacies here I can’t begin to list them all: 1) the example of Jesus who cast out demons, 2) the witness of exorcism in the apostolic age, 3) the testimony of early church fathers regarding confronting real demons, and 4) the present-day witness of deliverance ministries. Our ministry is now approaching 1,000 graduates of our International School of Exorcism. These mighty men and women of God face, almost daily, a reality this pastor denied in a message preached to a congregation of thousands!

In summary, this pastor’s thesis was that spiritual warfare is a battle only in the mind, a victory against an ephemeral essence of immorality, not a struggle against real, evil entities intent on the destruction of believers. What I learned in church that Sunday is that there’s more than one way to deny the demonic. You don’t have to be an atheist to dismiss the devil. You can espouse a politically correct theology that relegates all the devil does to a conceptual notion, a theoretical concept of evil that wafts in the wind, posing no real threat — if you’ve been elected to be saved. But I remind this pastor that James 2:19 tells us that the demons do believe in deliverance and they tremble at the thought.

An encouraging word: Don’t Be a Liar

Who is a liar? That question can be asked of many these days, from Hollywood to Congress. Politicians on both sides constantly stretch the truth to fit their agendas. We now know that many of the most powerful people in Hollywood were living a lie, pretending to be upstanding while privately accosting, even raping, women (and men)! The ultimate test of lying is defined in 1 John 2:22: “Who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ.” People may lie about many things, but the most egregious falsehood is refusing to acknowledge the deity of Jesus. You can get through life telling little white lies, but you can’t get to heaven by refusing to confess that Christ is God.

11 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.

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.

• Between years 2000 and 2016, a 60% increase for women ages 45-64.
• For men during that same period, a 37% increase.
• Overall suicide rates between years 2000 and 2016 jumped 30%.

• Those with a trauma-filled past of abuse, and who developed multiple personalities to cope, often experience, at about this time in life, less ability for internal alters to maintain emotional stability. As the dissociative system unravels, the pain of past trauma rushes to the front and can become psychologically unmanageable without intervention.
• Generational curses which have been held at bay by the emotional energy of youth can no longer be avoided. The consequences of inherited evil finally catch up and the full effect of ancestral sin pushes the victim toward self-destruction. If there is murder or suicide in the bloodline, the demons behind these curses want to destroy the person before natural death occurs.

By now you’ve probably heard that television evangelist Jessie Duplantis, of New Orleans, wants a brand new $54 million jet for Jesus. He already has three other jets, but this new one has, he says, “fighter jet technology with an elegant, whisper-quiet executive cabin.” The secular and Christian press raised collective eyebrows of skepticism about the legitimacy of such a brash appeal. In response to the blowback, Duplantis countered that he wasn’t asking for money but just wanted his followers to “believe” for the jet.

I’m not going to analyze the pros and cons or the biblical legitimacy of Jessie’s appeal. What got my attention was a published defense by another preacher, who wrote, “Don’t let pride convince you that you have better ideas on how to use the money. Why is it any of your business?” Well, we’re all sailing on this gospel ship together and when something like this is amplified in the media, all Christians are affected. As to better ideas on how to use the money, we might start with battered women shelters, Christian rehab programs, Pro-Life pregnancy centers, human trafficking efforts and deliverance ministries.

Let’s be frank. There isn’t a single prosperity preacher in America who promotes deliverance. That’s not to say that these men and women are off-track entirely. As with Paul, I praise God wherever, and however Christ is preached (Phil. 1:18). But consider this. I meet many honorable men and women of God who minister week after week to those bound by Satan. Too often these deliverance ministers are treated like second-class citizens in God’s kingdom. They do in secret what their own pastors won’t allow in church. They fight the devil without the benefit of beautiful buildings and, yes, a private jet. It’s time to give honor to whom honor is due, and I salute all those brave warriors for Jesus who humbly and unheralded do exactly what Jesus did while He was here. Frankly, they don’t need a new jet. Just a Bible, a cross, some anointing oil, and spiritual determination to set the captives free.

An Encouraging word: The Name of Jesus

Evangelical Christians usually conclude prayers, “In the name of Jesus.” I personally like to express the full trinity, “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Whichever one’s preference, Philippians 2:9 tells us that His name is “above every name.” Furthermore, all the universe must bow to that name. I’m concerned that Christians so often close a prayer in Jesus’ name without giving full reverence. At times it’s almost a coda, an addendum, an appendix to the prayer without fully giving honor to that name. The next time you end a prayer “in the name of Jesus,” pause to reflect about the awe of those words and the power in that name.