One often hears, “It’s the natural thing to do,” but be advised that this is not a defense when one stands before God.  The entire premise of the faith calls the redeemed out of the natural and into the supernatural.  II Corinthians 4:18:

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

The day one experiences the supernatural born-again experience, one enters the supernatural invisible Kingdom of God.  Natural is not natural to the supernatural God, and His sons and daughters are expected to emulate their supernatural Father as demonstrated in our Saviour, His supernatural Son, Jesus Christ, the Champion of Golgotha and the Lord of Glory. 

The child of faith’s supernatural journey begins with the born-again experience and develops with the baptism of the Holy Ghost: laying hands on the sick, casting out devils, casting mountains into the sea, participating in the nine gifts of the Spirit, functioning in the supernatural ministry of reconciliation, and so much, much more.  What a glorious and eternally fulfilling place to be, this supernatural but invisible Kingdom of God. 

Have you been born again?  Are you ready to be forgiven and to surrender your life to Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son and the world’s only way of escape?  Are you ready to have your sin and shame expunged from your record and to begin a brand-new life—an everlasting life?  Today, step out into the supernatural.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Mark 5:2-13:

2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:

4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.

5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,

7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.

8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.

12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.

13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.

GOD SAID, Luke 4:33-35:

33 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,

34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.

35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.

GOD SAID, Mark 16:17-18:

17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

MAN SAID: There is no soul or spiritual realm!

Now THE RECORD.  We were created not only as physical beings.  When God breathed the Spirit of life into our nostrils, we became living souls.  Man was created with a direct physical-spiritual interface that is not optional.  We are physical and spiritual and interaction between the two dimensions is constant. 

In the very beginning, Adam and Eve were immortal and lived in a place called Paradise—a place where only one voice was heard, God the Creator’s voice.  One day, a second voice began to speak and this voice contradicted the first voice.  This second voice was Satan’s voice—the destroyer, the antithesis of the first.  We have been created to hear voices and to interact.  You’ll often hear the born-again say, “God spoke to me,” and be assured, the camp of the second voice also hears voices—not always audible, but always hearable.  Concerning voices and the redeemed, Jesus said in John 10:27:

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

God has constructed laws of physical-to-spiritual interaction, laws that spiritual entities cannot abridge.  I Peter 5:8:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

The verse reads, “whom he may devour,” and not whom he can.  Satan needs permission to devour and his permission is the open door of disobedience. 

The final plague of Egypt during Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage was the slaying of the first born (Exodus 11 and 12).  The first born of man and beast were to be destroyed in all of Egypt and the only place of safety was declared in Exodus 12:23:

For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

Note that the destroyer needed permission.  Of the devil, it is said in John 10:10:

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

During the time of the final plague, those who remained in the blood-bought house were safe from the destroying angel.  When Satan, the destroyer, sees the blood of Christ that has washed away the sins of the redeemed, he must pass over.  I Corinthians 5:7 reads, “…For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:”  Satan does not have permission to destroy the blood-bought soul. 

The rules of physical-to-spiritual engagement are revealed in Job 1:8-10:

8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?

10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

Satan refers to a hedge of protection that blocks him from damaging Job.  That hedge is made of faith in God and obedience to His Word.  When the hedge is down, when the door is open, Satan has the green light to damage and, in some cases, even possess the physical bodies of mortals. 

Much of the ministry of Jesus Christ involved casting devils out of individuals.  Several paragraphs from the GodSaidManSaid feature “Casting Out Devils” follow:

Exorcism is defined by Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language as, “The expulsion of evil spirits from persons or places by certain adjurations and ceremonies.” [End of quote]  Jesus Christ did not perform exorcisms, but cast out the unclean spirits by the power of His Word.  The ministers of the cross cast out devils in Jesus’s name by the spoken authority of the word of faith, which is the most powerful force in the universe. 

There are those in the field of parapsychology, which is the study of extrasensory perception and related psychic phenomena, who believe that many patients in today’s insane asylums are possessed by unclean spirits or devils.  The following excerpt is from The Christian Courier under the title “Demons: Ancient Superstition or Historical Reality:”

In 1846, Simon Greenleaf, Dane Professor of Law at Harvard University, produced a work titled, The Testimony of the Evangelists Examined by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice.  Greenleaf was the greatest authority in the history of legal procedure on what constitutes evidence.  His massive three-volume set, A Treatise on the Law of Evidence (1842-53) is, to this very day, a standard on the topic of evidence.  Greenleaf argued in The Testimony—with dramatic authority—that the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John passed the strictest tests of authenticity, and thus may be regarded as dependable (1903, pp. 1-54).  And without controversy is the fact that these writers described cases of demonic activity during the ministry of Jesus. [End of quote]

Is there such a thing as devil possession in this day?  Do people actually sell their souls to the Devil?  The following paragraphs are from a feature on this website titled “Beware Who You Follow:”

Atheist Karl Marx, the father of the left-wing sociological system known as communism, was an ardent follower of Darwin.  The leadership of Marx has resulted in the sorrow and death of millions.  These following excerpts are from Dr. Morris’s book, The Long War Against God:

Karl Marx was born into a well-to-do family of Jewish Christians, but later in life became strongly anti-Semitic and anti-black, as well as anti-Christian and anti-God.  At first, however, and until high school graduation, he gave every indication of being a knowledgeable and committed Christian.  But then some unknown event occurred that changed his life’s orientation drastically.  The Rev. Richard Wurmbrand, an authority on the evils of communism, has observed: “Shortly after Marx received this certificate, something mysterious happened in his life: he became profoundly and passionately antireligious.  A new Marx began to emerge.  He writes in a poem, ‘I wish to avenge myself against the One who rules above.’”

And then Dr. Morris writes:

In addition to his economic and sociological writings, which were extensive, Marx wrote a number of poems and dramas, especially during his college years.  It is mainly in these that his dark religion is expressed.  Just to give one example cited by Wurmbrand, consider one of his poems, called “The Player,” written by Karl Marx at about age eighteen and evidently intended as a sort of personal testimony.  It reads:

The hellish vapors rise and fill the brain,
‘Til I go mad and my heart is utterly changed.
See this sword?
The prince of darkness
Sold it to me.
For me he beats the time and gives the signs.
Ever more boldly I play the dance of death.

According to Wurmbrand, this is in reference to rites of initiation in the Satanist cults, in which an enchanted sword ensuring success in life is sold to the initiate for the price of a blood covenant with Satan for his soul at death. [End of quotes]

Many years ago, on a rainy Saturday evening, I was lying on my bed after work while my wife was preparing dinner.  Later that evening, we were to attend a church service.  My relaxation was interrupted when I heard the door to the house opening abruptly.  A sister in the Lord came rushing into the kitchen shouting, “Where is Brother Dave?  Where is Brother Dave?  I have a demon-possessed woman in my car!”  I quickly took my raincoat and went out into the kitchen.  The sister told me she had picked up a woman who was hitchhiking  and that she had grabbed the steering wheel of the vehicle three times attempting to wreck the car.  She asked if I would cast out the devils. 

Up to that time, I had little experience in the act of casting out devils, and that which I did have was strictly as a supporting role.  I told the sister that I would go with her. As we walked out into the dark during an electrical storm—complete with booming thunder, lightning, and pelting rain—she told me to watch out because this woman was very strong.  Under my breath, I spoke to the Lord, explaining my lack of experience.  But, I was fully believing His Word and telling Him that I was stepping into this confrontation with the devil solely in Jesus’s name.  I got into the driver’s seat and my sister in Christ sat in the back.  The hitchhiker was in the front passenger seat looking at the floor in what appeared to be a catatonic stupor.  I addressed her as she continued staring at the floor and ignoring me.  As I began to speak to her in Jesus’s name, she began to respond. 

She told me she knew all about Jesus Christ and was instead studying eastern religions.  As I began to speak about Jesus Christ, she became agitated and these words came out of her mouth repeatedly: “Leave Leona alone.  She’ll be alright when she gets home.”  The sister in the back seat excitedly tapped me on the shoulder, telling me that the hitchhiker’s name was Leona!  This third-person conversation was a devil speaking through Leona as described in the passages from the Word of God quoted above.  As I began to confront the devils directly, they responded, “Leave Leona alone or we will kill her when she gets home!”  Now fully in the middle of this high-energy confrontation, I began to bind the devils by the authority of the Word of God and their heated response was, “Jesus Christ is nothing!  I gave you all that you have!  I am the source!”  I called the devil a liar and reached out and laid my hand on Leona’s head, commanding the devil to come out in the name of Jesus.  She began to writhe like a snake, shouting, “You’re burning my head!  You’re burning my head!” as she swung open the door of the parked car and began running down the street.  As the lightning flashed, we could see Leona’s silhouette running, with her hair and hands in the air.  I quickly started the vehicle and we pursued her.  As we got next to her, the sister in the back seat jumped out of the vehicle and forced Leona into the car.  Now all three of us were in the front seat.  It appeared that the situation was much more severe than before I had called the devils out. 

Leona was frantic and in this dangerous moment, God spoke to me very clearly and said, “Did you command the Devil to leave?”  I responded that I did. He told me the devils were in fact gone from Leona’s body, but they were bluffing in order to break my faith, so that they could repossess her.  God’s truth to me in that extreme moment was so obviously clear.  The devils were bluffing!  Yes, of course they were bluffing!  I began to laugh at the top of my voice.  Leona’s frantic ruminations were replaced with hands uplifted as she praised God for her deliverance through Christ Jesus! 

This was not an exorcism, but rather the casting out of devils by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. [End of quotes]

The headline in the January 24, 2015 issue of Science News reads, “Culture Affects Tones of Voices.”  Several excerpts follow:

People with schizophrenia may hear either hostile voices goading them to jump off a bridge or a mother’s soothing words of advice, depending on the cultures in which they live, a new study suggests. 

In the United States, schizophrenia’s recognized symptoms include hallucinations of disembodied voices that hurl insults and make violent commands.  But in India and Ghana, schizophrenia patients often report positive relationships with hallucinated voices that they recognize as those of family members or God, says an international team led by Stanford University anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann.  The findings appear in the January British Journal of Psychiatry.

Indians and Africans in the study spoke little of their psychiatric diagnosis.  Their social worlds emphasize relationships over individuality and the possibility of supernatural contacts with spirits.  Many patients in both regions regarded most hallucinated voices as familiar people who couldn’t be controlled but who were sensible and likeable. 

The new findings lend support to a controversial treatment approach in the West, called the Hearing Voices movement, which for more than 20 years has taught people to interact with hallucinated voices as people.  If this approach continues to catch on, a growing number of people with schizophrenia will become skilled at interacting constructively with their voices, Hopper predicts. [End of quotes]

GodSaidManSaid does not suggest that everyone diagnosed with schizophrenia is possessed of devils, but certainly all are being oppressed by the devil; although many, by Biblical description, would be considered possessed.  The Christ solution for those seeking deliverance from such a situation is to cast out the evil spirts and to immediately get that individual filled and sealed with the Holy Ghost, for Satan will return and attempt to repossess.  Jesus states in Luke 11:24-26:

24 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.

25 And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.

26 Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

Those who are not filled with the Holy Ghost as they were on the day of Pentecost need to visit the Holy Ghost Series on this website. 

Jesus said in Mark 16:17:

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

All children of faith have the power to cast out devils in Jesus’s name, but it is critical that the believer acting on this promise has their individual hedge of faith and obedience intact. 

There is no secret supernatural prayer that one prays to cast out devils.  The procedure is accomplished even as Christ demonstrates, with one modification.

Example:

† Jesus said in Mark 5:8: Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

† The child of faith would say: In the name of Jesus Christ, come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

Example:

† Jesus said in Luke 4:35: Hold thy peace, and come out of him.

† The child of faith would say: In the name of Jesus Christ, hold thy peace, and come out of him.

Devil possession is more prevalent than most would think, but Jesus Christ, as in all matters with which we have to do, is the answer.  Jesus Christ is the Lord of Glory. 

GOD SAID, Mark 5:2-13:

2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:

4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.

5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,

7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.

8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.

12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.

13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.

GOD SAID, Luke 4:33-35:

33 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,

34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.

35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.

GOD SAID, Mark 16:17-18:

17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

MAN SAID: There is no soul or spiritual realm!

Now you have THE RECORD. 

References

Authorized King James Version

Bower, B., “Culture Affects Tones of Voices,” Science News, January 24, 2015, pg. 10-11

GodSaidManSaid, “Casting Out Devils”

GodSaidManSaid, “Far Better than Placebo Power”