I ministered to a lot of deeply hurting, angry and bitter people during my time as a street minister. So deep seated were these emotions in many, that not only were they affected mentally but also physically. Chronic sickness in the community was as common as a cold day in winter and if I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to sit, talk and pray with such people, they would share some of their background. It was during such times that I discovered I had more to learn about the power of the spoken word.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me,” is a lie. It is a lie that comes straight from the pit of hell. Words can kill – perhaps not as quickly as other weapons designed for that purpose – but kill, they can and do. The biblical proverb is true when it tells us that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Before I became a public messenger of the gospel I was given a lot of time to reflect on this truth as it applied to my own life and I asked myself, “If words are powerful, how powerful are God’s?”
Fortunately God has never stopped answering that question for me and where possible, I’ve been given opportunities to put it right with people whom I’ve used negative words against. And whether they are dead or alive, I have forgiven others for their negative words spoken over me. And if their words should come back into my mind, I interpret them as fiery darts from the demonic and I send them away in the name of Jesus Christ, invoking His word. So, how powerful are God’s words? They are all-powerful. So powerful are they that I do not bow to human opinions and religious traditions when they clash with them.
Words are not mere sounds that come from our mouth. You could say that they are living active agents sent forth either for good or for hurt – to build up or tear down. Words live. One meaning of the New Testament word “curse” is “execrate” and it means: “to detest utterly; imprecate evil upon; damn; abominate; denounce.” Without knowledge or intention, that is what we are doing when we speak negative words over our own life or over the lives of others. Examples: You moron. You idiot. You’ll never do it. You’re stupid. You’re ugly. You’re not qualified, You’re too old, too young, too fat. You always…… You never……
When given the privilege to sit and listen to those people, I learned that for many of them they had never known any other kind of environment; an environment that had destroyed them in several ways. They became conditioned at an early age to believe such words, which put them in a hole – originally dug for them by others, but now it was a hole in which they were daily digging for themselves. They had been doing so (in some cases) for seventy or eighty years and as a result, far too many never achieved what they had once dreamed for. They had settled for second-best in life and this created bitterness, which created sickness.
Words create thoughts and thoughts create things. All of us are where we are today as a result of our thoughts. When God granted me the enablement to discover that truth through the revelation of His written, living word, I made it my business once and for all to reject and renounce the words and opinions of man, whenever they conflict with His word. It was in God’s word, that I saw that I too was in a hole. The Bible calls it a ‘horrible pit’ Psalm 40:2. And had it not been for the power of God’s word, I would still be in that pit, regardless of how clever, sophisticated and intelligent, or how moronic, idiotic or stupid I might be.
So although I myself had/have not personally “arrived,” I was at all times equipped with God’s solutions for these people. All they needed to do was be open to what God wanted to reveal to them. It was my job to assist in this by way of exercising spiritual warfare. For example, if it were obvious that deep unforgiveness and bitterness were showing up in a person, I would take authority over the spirits (demons) of unforgiveness, bitterness and rejection. I bound them in Jesus’ name making them temporarily inactive while the person spoke. This was done without the other person knowing what I was doing.
Taking authority over these evil spirits frees a person from clouded issues and it enables the Holy Spirit to speak reality and truth into their lives. If one responds to the Spirit, then God has a lot of room to move in setting them free from these emotions, as well as the demons who came in later to reside and add fuel to the fire. Only the powerful word of God, invoked in Jesus’ name is capable of bringing such deliverance. Man’s institutional religious practice can’t do it. Neither can humanistic psychology and psychiatry. Each of these are disqualified.
Why are they disqualified? Because man’s problems are not in his mind, they are in his spirit and only Jesus is qualified to go there. Religious practice, humanistic psychology and psychiatry can certainly bring about reformation in a person, but that has never been God’s interest. God’s only interest has ever been transformation. He wants to be given the opportunity to conform each of us to the image of His Son and only the Trinity can do that. That’s why He calls us to give up our life (soul) and receive the life of Christ in exchange – eternal life – which is God’s life – eternal in quality and eternal in quantity.
One day I called at the home of a lady in her fifties and at the mention of Jesus Christ she expressed great anger. I took authority over the Antichrist spirit as well as the spirits of bitterness and rejection. The lady became visibly relaxed as I chatted with her. The next time I called, I bound those spirits again. She invited me in for further talk. She didn’t go into detail but it was apparent by her words that negative statements had been spoken over her life by “religious people” long years before. She had never married because she didn’t like men. I told her that there was one Man who loved her and would prove it if given the chance.
On the way out she said, “I don’t know how you got in here, I never let you people into my home.” I know how I got in. God wanted me to share His word with her and He gave me the authority to temporarily deal with the spirits that controlled her. I don’t know if she ever responded to the message, but she won’t be able to stand before Him on judgement day and say, “I never heard Your message.” That lady had angina problems, blood pressure, arthritis and no peace. A spirit of Antichrist, bitterness and rejection had blocked off all true peace for decades.
Another lady in her late thirties came to the church for private counsel. Her life was one great mess. She had the lowest of self-esteem, anger, resentment, jealousy and fear, plus deep rejection. In our conversation it was immediately clear to us that she was not just emotionally driven, but demonically driven. In other words her problems were more than mental, they were spiritual. She was demonically oppressed. As a child she lived with a drunken father and mother in a rat-infested house that had no floor.
She was jealous of her sisters and hated a drunken uncle who regularly tried to molest her, but didn’t succeed. She got into the occult, playing Ouija board “games” and attending seances – all innocent at the start, so she thought – not knowing that this practice would come back to bite her. She suffered from chronic physical sickness as well. She had lived with a man for twelve years and had four kids. They did get married but it broke up after twelve months. Now she was living with another man and was eight months pregnant.
She had given her life to Christ just two months prior to our meeting and although she knew little of His real power and authority, she was well aware of who the Lord was and she had the faith to believe He would help her. What she didn’t know about, was the workings of demons and the fact that if we continually open ourselves up to darkness (occult), they will slip into our being and take over our life. It made a lot of sense to her when we explained why she had been obsessively driven by her emotions and behaviour.
Sometimes when demons are being cast out of people they will put up an enormous fight, which can put an equally enormous physical strain on the one being delivered. They have made their home within that person for many long years and can fool us into thinking they won’t go. On the other hand, they can give the impression that they have gone, when they haven’t. One must discern the mind of God at such times and we must know our complete authority in Jesus Christ. We must know who we are in Him and we must know who He is in us. Otherwise the devil will win the day.
Concern for that very-pregnant lady’s physical well-being was a constant part of my prayer all the way through the two and a half-hour counselling session, but when it came time for those demons to go out from her, they obeyed the Lord without a whimper, every one of them. God’s powerful words set her free that day without harm to herself or the baby. Satan the devil and his demons have absolutely no respect for man’s traditional religious practices, theological status, ministerial positions and titles – but they have ultimate respect for the Lord Jesus Christ. They know the power of His word and they tremble in His presence. “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble……. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 2:19; 4:7.