Have you made your arrangements for death?  People are afraid to even consider death, thinking that they might cause it to come prematurely—or it may simply be basic, carnal terror.  I once received a phone call from a brother requesting that I conduct a funeral for a man I didn’t know and who was not a member of the faith.  Typically, I avoid that unless the person is a member of our congregation.  In this case, I said I would, and asked to know a date and time for the services.  The man had not yet died, but was on his deathbed.  I made plans to stop and visit with him, but interruptions and maybe a lack of urgency on my part kept me away.  Several days passed, and when I left my office at the end of the day, heading home, a gospel song on the radio blared out a lyric about not visiting a person in their sickness and they died.  This was a song I had never heard before, or since.  I turned the vehicle around and headed for the hospital.  I was told in advance that this man was very educated, an avowed agnostic, and had no interest in Jesus Christ.  When I arrived at his room, the man had several visitors, so I asked if all would leave for a few minutes.  I looked in the old man’s eyes, introduced myself, and told him I had been summoned to conduct his funeral.  Surely, the Holy Ghost had his attention.  I asked this agnostic if he would like to repent of his sins and surrender himself to Jesus Christ and His saving blood.  The man looked and me and said, “Yes.”  I took his hand and lead him to the cross; listened as he confessed Jesus Christ as his Lord.  I congratulated him and welcomed him to the family of God.  I said goodbye to my new brother and left his bedside.  One of the folks I had asked to leave the room spoke to the gentleman who requested that I conduct the funeral.  He said: “What did he do?!  When we went back into the room, he was a changed man!”  The man was born again!  Several days later, the man died; at the funeral, I had a beautiful story to tell—one that will last forever. 

Will today be the day you make your arrangements to meet God?  Will today be your day of salvation, where all your sin, shame, and bondages are broken and washed away?  Click onto “Further with Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT. 

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 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, 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;

GOD SAID, I Thessalonians 4:3-4:

3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

MAN SAID: Ludicrous!  The existence of “Satan” and the idea of “devil possession” are ridiculous.  An educated society will have no part of it! 

Now THE RECORD: Devil possession is real business, and knowing how to deal when confronted with these spiritual situations is critical.  A few excerpts follow from Feature One of this two-part series:

Jesus Christ spent much of His ministry casting out devils.  When describing what real believers will do, He says 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;

The operative word in this passage is believe. 

Spirits are real entities and have spiritual members, even as the natural man has physical members.  The Bible says God is a spirit, angels are ministering spirits, and Satan is a spirit.  All have lips, hands, feet—the works.  Don’t think of spirits as some abstract, ethereal entity, for this is not the case. 

Various types of devil possessions are outlined in the Scriptures: suicidal spirits, multiple personalities, self-destructive cutter-type spirits, and even those described in Mark 9:25:

When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

There is a spirit of witchcraft and idolatry, a spirit of lust, hatred, pride, lying, jealousy, greed, unbelief, a spirit of infirmity, and more.  This short series will address the reality of Satan’s not-so-clandestine works, how devils gain access to human vessels, and how to evict them.  [End of quote]

The U.K. Telegraph, September 26, 2016, headline reads, “Leading U.S. Exorcists Explain Huge Increase in Demand for the Rite—And Priests to Carry Them Out.”  Headline, August 2016, WND.com reads, “U.S. Alarm: Unprecedented Demonic Outpouring.”  An excerpt from pastor and author Carl Gallups follows:

“Because of modern technology, the whole world sees these demonic displays, one after the other,” the pastor said.  “We are under the prophesied demonic deluge.  The problem is it is so in-your-face that few actually ‘see’ it.  There is such a technological saturation of evil—from entertainment mediums to virtual fantasy porn—that a ‘normalcy bias’ kicks into overdrive.” 

And Gallups concluded ominously what modern Christians are witnessing is nothing new.

“It’s kind of like the days of Noah,” he said.  “Everyone just ‘ate and drank’ even though their judgment was staring them in the face, just like Jesus warned. The Lion of prophesy is roaring.  I wonder if anyone actually hears it.” 

A monster spiritual bondage that last week’s feature called the elephant in the room, is academic devils that bind the minds of those who refuse to retain God in their knowledge.  Deadly academic devils enter through the door of unbelief, possessing receptive human bodies, driving them to that which is unseemly: embracing atheism, evolution—or evil-lution, as it is pronounced in England, homosexuality, and all manners of perversion.  While reading Romans 1:18-28, keep in mind that unrighteousness is unbelief and it’s resultant deeds:

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

The absolutely ludicrous is embraced when one refuses to retain God in his knowledge.  These individuals are given over to reprobate minds, which, by definition, means worthless. 

II Thessalonians 2:8-12 defines the last-days’ devil stronghold as the “deceivableness of unrighteousness,” and this deception is a product of unbelief.  Those of this ilk are possessed of a spirit of strong delusion that they might believe a lie.  The passage in Thessalonians specifically relates to the condition of the world just prior to the great taking-up of the church—commonly called the rapture.  The spirits of reprobate and strong delusion are easily demonstrated.  For example, the spiritual bondage comports into the foolishness that all of creation is a result of a big bang, where nothing explodes and evolves into everything.  It comports to dinosaurs—those terrible lizards—evolving into hummingbirds, or water buffaloes that miraculously evolve into whales.  It comports to “Am I a boy or a girl—or something else?,” homosexuality, gay marriage, and “what bathroom should I use?”  This is just a sampling of the devil bondage of reprobate minds and strong delusions.  How does a devil possess a human vessel, though? 

The following principles have been lifted from previous GodSaidManSaid features. 

▶ GodSaidManSaid, “Hauntings, Dead Spirits, and Ghosts:”

In II Corinthians 2:11, we are instructed not to be ignorant of Satan’s devices. Satan is a very real spirit and it’s important to have understanding of the spirit realm to understand his devices. There are laws of spirit-flesh interaction and it behooves us to understand the rules of engagement.

All spirits come from God. Evil spirits were once good but rebelled against the Spirit of God. These spirits are comprised of Satan, the other fallen angels, and the unregenerated spirits of living men who yield themselves to the spirit of disobedience. By design, we function in a spiritual realm. Our great-grandfather Adam was an inert mound of mud—a clay sculpture so to speak—until God breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. That is when Adam became a living soul. Without exception, all physical things are made and moved by the Spirit of God. Through Christ, the spirit in us links up to the Spirit of God in obedience—or Satan’s spirit in disobedience. We make this choice. But remember, we are likened to sheep for a specific reason. We have been designed to follow. We simply follow, but the choice of who we follow and into whose image we develop, is ours.

Earlier, I mentioned the need to understand the laws of spirit-flesh engagement. Romans 6: 16 reads:

16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Note the words whom and yield. A believer yields himself to God and becomes possessed of the Spirit of God. A Christian, when speaking of his or her salvation, will use terms such as, “I’ve surrendered my life to Jesus Christ,” or “I’ve asked Jesus Christ into my heart.” Conversely, a non-Christian who yields himself to Satan’s spirit of disobedience becomes possessed by that spirit. As this individual continues to yield to disobedience, the level of bondage increases. In the same way, the believer that continues to yield to the Spirit of God, which is the spirit of life, increases his freedom.

The difference of being possessed of the Spirit of God versus the spirit of the anti-Christ is the difference between life and death, and between light and darkness—180 degrees. The Spirit of God is sought willingly and a believer stays with God by his own volition. The benefits are life and life more abundantly here on this earth and eternal life through the saving blood of Jesus Christ. In the other camp, those who yield to the spirit of disobedience are taken by Satan at his will (II Timothy 2:26), and can only leave his death grip by the delivering hand of Jesus Christ. The wages of sin are death and destruction while living on this earth, then eternal damnation in the Lake of Fire.

Jesus spends much time in the Bible casting out evil spirits who have taken up residence inside humans. Concerning the ministry of His followers, Jesus Christ said they would cast out devils. 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;

Conversations can be held with evil spirits. An example is found in Luke 8:27-33.

Evil spirits will many times function inside a possessed person and speak in the third person or manifest themselves as multiple personalities. Some situations attributed to psychological disorders are actually devil possessions. Individuals possessed by the Spirit of God can cast these spirits out. It’s important to note that children of God have full authority over devil spirits and they are not to be feared—not to be trifled with for certain, but not to be feared. [End of quotes]

▶ GodSaidManSaid, “We Will Kill Leona When She Gets Home—so the Devils Said:”

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 heard.  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.

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 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. 

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 of Nazareth, hold thy peace, and come out of him.

Devil possession is more prevalent than most would think, but Jesus Christ, as in all matters in which we are involved, is the answer.  Jesus Christ is the Lord of Glory. [End of quotes]

Once the evil spirits are cast out, immediate action is required.  Keep in mind that darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, and God is light (I John 1:5).  Important guidelines for those set free from devils would be:

1. The individual must fully surrender his or her life to Jesus Christ with an open confession and begin to seek the Lord in His Word, and this would certainly include water baptism by immersion.  Click onto “Further with Jesus.”

2. The delivered saint should acquire an Authorized King James Version of the Bible. Click onto the GodSaidManSaid “Holy Ghost Series,” and follow along.  During this series, as the new believer steps out in faith, he or she will receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost.  When the devils return to inhabit, they will see the Holy Ghost’s “No Vacancy” sign.

3. The newly-delivered saint must remove all unclean things (that are in his or her control) from his or her home, vehicle, and work place.  A short list would include:

♦ Alcohol;

♦ Drugs;

♦ Witchcraft and Satanic elements;

♦ Things to do with the occult, such as horoscopes, Ouija boards, literature, and the like;

♦ Pornography;

♦ Antichrist academic literature;

♦ TV programs, Internet use, and radio programs that should be censored; and

♦ God will lead. 

4. The newly set free believer should:

♦ Read the Word of God daily.  For example, morning, noon, and evening.  Begin in Matthew.  A good rule of thumb is to spend as much time eating the bread of life as one spends eating food and snacking. 

♦ Attend a true full-Gospel church at least twice a week. 

♦ Tell others about the love of Christ. 

♦ Separate from sinners and fellowship with the born-again. 

The children of God have the power to cast out devils in Jesus’s name. 

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 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, 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;

MAN SAID: Ludicrous!  The existence of “Satan” and the idea of “devil possession” is ridiculous.  An educated society will have no part of it!

Now you have THE RECORD.

References:

Authorized King James Version

“U.S. Alarm: Unprecedented Demonic Outpouring,” WND.com

GodSaidManSaid, “Devil Possession and How to be Set Free (Part 1)”

GodSaidManSaid, “Hauntings, Dead Spirits, and Ghosts” 

GodSaidManSaid, “We Will Kill Leona When She Gets Home—so the Devils Said”