Cast Out

There are some things in our lives that cannot be healed; they must be cast out. But here's the greater challenge: 

I have no earthly idea how to cast out a demon. None. 

I get that there are a bunch of holy roller types that have been on television making a display of doing exactly this, but I don't think that's the way to go. I know there are some Pentecostal types in the world who are very confident in their abilities to do this, but I'm not sure I've seen anything convincing from them, either. And then, there are those who pray quietly, from the agony of their heart, in private spaces and think that certainly, the whisper of confident assurance must be enough; I'm not sure of that, either. 

In other words, the world has a lot of worldly ideas about how to do it and some Christians have some doctrinal ideas about how to do it, but it's just one of those things that I still wrestle with, and I'm not sure where exactly the right place to stand on this is. 

I think there's a part of me that is still caught up in the fear of it all (which is, by the way, exactly what demons thrive on). When you read the stories in the Bible that involve demons, it's never pretty. You see folks thrown to the ground, seizing, foaming at the mouth, lying completely dead. And, well, who wants to do that to themselves? Can't you just make an agreement with the demons and find a way to live together? 

Ah, here we are again...making agreements with demons. No wonder we have problems that can only be cast out. 

Again, demonology is something I'm not sure I have really accepted or understood for much of my Christian life. I come from a Christian persuasion that doesn't talk much about it, and I know the perceptions of both Christians and the world about the existence of demons. But the more of my life that I live and the more of my Bible that I study, I can't really fathom a spiritual world that is much different from that in the pages of our Scripture, and if Jesus Himself went around recognizing demons among the people, then who am I to sit here and say that Jesus is real, but demons don't exist? Seems fishy to me. 

That said, I think there are a couple of good principles in the Gospels (and in the later New Testament) about how to deal with demons. 

First, you have to tell them to shut up. 

Several of the stories that we see of Jesus encountering demons start by telling us that the demons are screaming, that they won't stop talking, that they know who Jesus is and keep calling Him the Son of God. And the first thing Jesus does is tell them to shut up. "Quiet!" 

This is not because He doesn't want to be recognized and known as the Son of God. It's because in the spiritual world in which Jesus is King, demons do not have the right to speak. Perhaps because they are so good at it. I mean, go back to the serpent in the Garden and it doesn't take much to recognize that if you let the demons speak, they'll talk circles around us until we've spun a full 180 degrees without even realizing it and then, here we are again, making agreements with them. So the first thing that you have to do with a demon is command it to shut up. 

Second, you have to speak straight to the demon. With all power and authority, as soon as you've taken its voice away, you have to take your voice back and speak with courage. Because you need these demons to know that you have the authority to command them to shut up because, get this, you also have the authority to tell them to leave. Listen, you're about to do it. This is your body, your life, your loved one, whatever, and you set the boundaries, and you're done making agreements. 

Third, you have to call on the name of Jesus. They have to know that you belong to Him. This authority in your voice, the way you speak, the audacity that you have to command the demons to do anything comes from Jesus who is the King, God who is the Lord, your Father...which makes you His child...which makes you present in the throne room. And suddenly, you become someone the demons don't even want to mess with any more. I mean, take any space in your life and make it inhospitable to someone else's tastes, and they aren't going to want to stay there long. That's what you do when you declare Who the space in your heart really belongs to - if it's God's, it's disgusting to the demons, and they don't want to hang around. Much better to go somewhere less objectionable to them. 

Again, I don't know how it works. I don't know that I've ever done it in my whole life. I'm in a season where I'm trying to learn, but I still have more questions than answers. 

But what I know, at least, at this point is this: that demons must be real because Jesus spent a good amount of His time dealing with them - in public and out loud - and that there are things in our lives that simply cannot be healed; they must be cast out. 

And that means it's time I learn to start casting.