My Feeble Attempt to Cast Out a Demon

Come out in the name of Jesus!....Please?

It always upset me when I would watch Hollywood movies that portrayed priests struggling to cast out demons. Doesn't Hollywood know how powerful God is? I daydreamed of movies that showed "real" Christians nonchalantly casting out demons. After all, that's how it was done in the Bible - wasn't it?

When I was in the seventh grade, I attended a Christian school. We had Bible class every morning. Most of us had grown up in the Church and had heard the typical Bible stories and lessons ad nauseum. So every morning most of the students would either sleep or do their homework during Bible class. Then one day we had a substitute teacher. She taught Bible class from her own personal life and experiences. She ended with a story about how she had cast a demon out of a guy. Every one of us were on the edge of our seats, listening to every word. At the very end she pointed at us with a super serious face and said, "Remember, as Christians, you have power!" Those words sank deep into my soul and I carry them with me to this day.

Several years ago I was part of a small church plant. I was praying for people after the service. I saw an old Latino woman walk in the back of the room. I knew who she was. We had been to her house and had ministered to her before. Although late, it was the first time she had come to one of our church services. She came up for prayer and the pastor's wife and I began praying for her. As we were praying for her, she fell to the floor. This was not unusual. People often fell out "in the Spirit" when we prayed for them. But then she let out a little moan - nothing dramatic but my spidey senses were uneasy. Then another moan, this one loud and guttural. The pastor's wife told it to come out and then it was on. This old lady's face contorted, her eyes rolled back into her head and she began growling and laughing. It was the first time I had encountered a demon and it was...well...scary. The pastor's wife kept telling it to come out but with no effect. I mustered up some courage and the words "Come out in the name of Jesus" softly tumbled off my lips. It continued to growl, apparently not even noticing my quiet command.

It began to get frustrating. No matter what we did, the thing wouldn't come out. The pastor said, "let her up!" An ex-con and former kickboxer, the pastor was truly a work of God. He was a violent criminal that had been transformed by God into a loving and kind man. The pastor's wife let the old lady go. The pastor went into a fighting stance as she shot up off the ground and was preparing to charge him. In any other situation, my money would have been on the pastor, but I wasn't sure who would win this fist fight. The pastor's wife stepped back in before they came to blows and guided the old lady with surprising ease back down to the floor.

Eventually, we were able to get the old lady to say the name of Jesus and the demon went away but it was more of a subsiding than being cast out. We called it a draw and I was glad it was over but that experience changed my theology of casting out demons.

In his book "Biblical Foundations of Freedom", Art Mathias writes about a similar (but more successful) experience casting demons out of a woman:

She refused to look me in the eye, so I gently took her chin and turned her head toward me. Then I commanded all the unclean, foul spirits to leave. Nothing happened.

Then I demanded in Jesus' name that the spirit tell me its name. The most guttural voice I have ever heard said, "hatred."

I was on uncharted ground, but with a Holy boldness I commanded "hatred" to leave in the name of Jesus. The voice retorted. "no, I don't have to, I"m justified."

Wow! What a statement! What did it mean? "No, you are not justified; leave her now in the name of Jesus," I demanded.

"She hates everybody," the demon growled.

I ordered the demon to be quiet, and we carefully led Joan through forgiveness of everybody that had ever abused her. It took more than an hour. We commanded the principality of bitterness and all its supporting demons of unforgiveness, resentment, retaliation, anger, hatred, violence, and murder to leave in the name of Jesus. They did.

Well, that worked well, not only for Mathias, but I have personally talked to others who have had success casting out demons using that methodology. However, the story violates my top two rules for dealing with demons:

Rule #1 - Don't believe what demons say
Rule #2 - See Rule #1

It just seems like we should have more authority than that. Is there a better way? Maybe I'm too much of an idealist and "Come out in the name of Jesus" is too simple like "Be healed in the name of Jesus".