CONQUERING DEMONS by Evangelist

Conquering Demons

Christian Hedegaard CONQUERING DEMONS ©1999 Christian Hedegaard ©2001 English edition, translation by Mikael Thomsen Cover and graphic arrangement: Giraffe, Helsinge Printed by Trykkeriet Friheden, Thisted

Conquering Demons

KBC Evangelist, Postbox 474, Vesterbrogade 66, 1506 Copenhagen V. Denmark

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1 FOREWORD 3 1. OLD “NILLER” 4 Double Life – The New Life – Demons on Visit – My Wife Karen – An ultimatum – The Call – Fever Cramps – The Faith Movement – The Countdown.

2. THE DELIVERANCE 16 Like a Chameleon – The Transformation – The Cracking Dam – Kill the Pastor – Evil Powers – Nicotine – Impurity – The Tiger.

3. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE 28 ISBN 87-89588-01-0

Encountering Demons – Afraid of the Devil – Created to have Dominion – The Second Adam – The Believer’s Authority – Jesus has Conquered – Lack of Knowledge – No More Goosebumps.

4. WHO IS SATAN? 40 The Cherub that Covereth – Satan in the New Testament – Satan’s Evil Plan – The Names of Satan - Satan in Music – Satan and Sex – An Angel of Light – We Renounce the Devil. If you have experienced ”Conquering Demons” after having read this book, then send your testimony to:

Conquering Demons

5. FALLEN ANGELS

The Job Description – Demonic Hierarchy – Territorial Spirits – Witchcraft – Spirits of the Dead – Spirits of Infirmity – Unclean Spirits – Spirits of Murder – Religious Spirits.

6. AN OPEN DOOR

A fortified City – When the Word Gets In – Examples of Thought Constructions – A New Safeguard – Further Reflections – A Wall of Protection – Take Captive any Thought – Peace of Mind.

8. BURN THE BRIDGES

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 155

Qualifications – The Fire Attracts – Constant Readiness – Healing and Deliverance – Words of Knowledge – Counselling.

11. SETTING PEOPLE FREE 126 Repentance Sets Free – Forgiveness is Necessary – Love as the Motive Power – Manifestations – Become One with the Word – Confess Jesus as Lord – The Oil of Anointing – To Bind and to Loose – Summary – The Void is Filled.

Settle the Score with Sin – A New Confession – No peaceful Coexistence – Watch the Grey Areas – David and Jonathan.

9. DEMONS IN THE CHURCH

The Enemy’s Strategy – Guard the Vision – The Message is Topical – Send the Enemy Packing.

10. DISCERNING SPIRITS 112

Spirit, Soul and Body – Born Again – Life After Death – The Unchanged Soul – The Battle over the Soul – An Important Definition.

7. THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE MIND

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POSTSCRIPT 143

Conquering Demons

INTRODUCTION For a whole year I attempted to gather a collection of materials concerning demons. I needed more knowledge in this area in order to both explain my own deliverance and also be able to teach others. I studied the word of God again and again until I finally gave up.

Thanks to all who have assisted in preparing the book and special thanks to my wife Karen. All honour to Jesus! Christian Hedegaard, Evangelist by the grace of God.

On December 12th 1998, I experienced how a scripture opened up to me. I sat down and began to write, every day for three weeks, and the result was this book, "Conquering Demons". However, it wasn't quite that easy, for without the assistance of my wife the book would never have become a reality. Guided by the Holy Spirit, Karen Hedegaard has edited this book and I truly hope that the result will be of much inspiration and liberation to the reader. The scriptures in this book are taken from the New International Version (NIV), unless something else is indicated. In order to present the subject clearly I distinguish between three levels of demonic activity. The following division – demonisation of the mind, oppression of the body and possession of the spirit, soul and body altogether – is my personal interpretation and the book should be read in this light Finally, it is important for me to emphasise that deliverance without repentance is like cutting the weed without uprooting it. It shoots right back up again and produces more seed. It is my desire, that a new generation of radical Christians will rise in these last days, and that this book will contribute to exposing the enemy’s strategy. 1

Conquering Demons

FOREWORD

1. OLD 'NILLER'

When I read the book – especially the beginning – I felt drawn into the suspense of the situation, just like I did when I read The Cross and the Switchblade many years ago.

I was so negative, acid almost came out of my mouth. One night, when everything was falling apart for me, demons came to visit me in my room. I saw them physically and I was scared out of my mind.

The testimony of demonic deliverance – which in some cases could be defined more appropriately – is described vividly. It is very characteristic of Christian Hedegaard, that the experiences must be shared with others. My acquaintance with Christian goes way back to his childhood. For this reason it is possible for me to follow him in many of his experiences. He was saved in the church that I pastored at the time, and after this, it was clear that we had gained a full-blown evangelist. He couldn't help but tell everyone about his saviour and his newfound faith – not only in the church but even more so in the street. For this reason it does not surprise me, that he has been led into the very ministry, which clearly presents itself in this book. The subject of this book is without doubt controversial. We are not so used to talking about demons in Danish churches, but surely – as revival becomes a reality in this country – we will encounter the power of darkness more and more. This book is an incentive to being more aware of the subject. There is no doubt, that there are many evil things hidden within the environment of de-christianised countries – things which will be exposed to the light, when the Spirit of God begins to move powerfully in Christian congregations. Preben Brohus, pastor.

Seen from a human point of view, there is no logical explanation why I, a child from a good Christian family, should be tormented by demons for such a long period of my life. I was born as number three out of four children: two brothers and two sisters. My parents’ first boy, my older sister’s pet and my younger brother's worst nightmare. My mother and father have been leaders of a Free Church1 for almost a lifetime and as a family we were engaged in church activities every Sunday the whole year. We kids lived a very protected life. Before going to school, I didn't know of life outside the church. I didn't know what cigarettes were. Actually, I thought they were something you ate, because I once saw a couple of clowns do this on TV. When I was ten years old, I found a case of beer in the woods, dragged it home and poured the contents into the toilet, after which I sold the bottles at the local store. As the years went by I got smarter. My happy and innocent childhood years in the 60's were replaced by the more liberated 70's, where the churches' attitude towards tobacco 1

In Denmark churches are divided into two basic categories: State Churches and Free Churches. The Free Churches include such denominations as Baptists, Apostolics, Pentecostals, etc. and are all financially independent institutions.

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and alcohol slowly began to change. The Gospel lost its teeth. It seemed like there was no reason to be fanatic anymore and many burning Christians lost the fire. They still attended the events in the church, but besides that there was little enthusiasm. But of course, they had to take care of their work and family in their little house behind the privet hedge. Sin made its way into the church under the cover of "culture" and "taking a stand against religiousness". Perhaps not so much in the leadership, but amongst the church members. I remember how they smoked in the Indre Mission (an evangelical branch of the Church of Denmark), while it was acceptable to "enjoy" alcohol in the Free Churches. They were offended by us and we were offended by them. During the 80's no one was offended by anyone.

It turned into a serious double life. My mother would send me to town to buy coffee for the church and I would go to the supermarket, steal the coffee and keep the money, which I used on the fast food barâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s slot machines. At home I turned into a tyrant. No one could stop me and the things I did were no longer innocent. I started training in martial arts and threatened to beat up my parents, but deep down inside I was terribly unhappy and suicidal thoughts began to emerge in my mind. My parents understood how serious the situation was and made an effort to get me back on the right track. They gave me a ticket to a Christian concert in Vejle, and here I made my decision to give Jesus a chance in my life. I said, "Jesus, if you're there, then please meet me now. I can't live on the faith of my parents!" Right there and then I met Him. I started to cry. On this second day of Easter 1983 I was saved.

Double Life Hence it became popular with spiritual counselling in the Free Churches. People dealt with their unhappy childhood and their rejection. They went to counselling and problems of all kinds were turned over and discussed before God and man. All the talk kept going on through the 90's without dealing with the actual problem, namely sin, which no one can talk themselves out of or discuss, but only repent of. I had my problems too. I was being teased in school because my parents were "holy" and from an early age I began to hate my parents for what they stood for. Rebellion took its toll in the teenage years and the quarrels with my parents continued to get worse. My upbringing was so different from that of my school friends and eventually I experienced an identity crisis. I was forced to participate in the church activities, but at the same time I was involved in the gang outside.

The New Life It was not easy for me to live this "new life". For two years I walked shameful, that I had become a Christian. It was not until I was baptised in Holy Spirit that something really happened. At once, I was inflamed with Jesus and started witnessing and praying for people around me. I had a love for Jesus that charged me forward. Now Jesus was the main man. But how should I be able to live as a burning Christian in a church, where so many years had passed by since we had seen a miracle? With a beer in one hand, a porno magazine in the other and a cigarette hanging out of my mouth, I didn't feel very holy. My counsellors were very tolerant. They rarely admonished me, when I did something wrong in the church. They patted me on the shoulder and excused my behaviour. "Oh that's just 6

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"Niller", he's an evangelist!" they said. I hated that name. I felt like I was light years away from the calling and had for this reason never let the word evangelist come upon my lips.

God who had brought us together. She also knew, that He hadn't promised a bed of roses. On the contrary, she was prophetically warned, that it would be a long and weary journey being married to me, but God had promised, that he would give her springs of water along the way. When we look back at the years that have passed, God has been faithful. He has kept his word, because we made room for Him, who is living, active and strong enough to transform any apparently impossible person and situation. Karen lost a lot of her friends, when we started going out. In the beginning they invited us both, but eventually they stopped. They refused to see us together and asked for her to come alone, without me. I was an expert in destroying parties. I could manipulate people completely to my own advantage and didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand the concept of consideration. I did everything that suited me and didn't believe that it could be any different. In this period, unclean thoughts, pornography and masturbation controlled me. I thought it was normal and I wasn't aware that Jesus could set me free from these "problems". At the same time, I was filled with violent thoughts. I trained in martial arts and this made me aggressive. I could preach the gospel one-day and the next day, I could threaten to beat someone up, or even do something worse. Things were incoherent. I was aware, that I desperately needed a change.

Demons Visiting Three years later I withdrew from the church and turned my back on God in favour of a Jewish beauty, whom I met at a kibbutz stay in Israel. God asked me to choose between Him and her. I chose the Jewish girl and for two months my life went totally off track. With the temper, which I was starting to develop, my school friends, thought it would be better for me to become a Christian again. I was so negative, acid almost came out of my mouth. One night, when everything was falling apart for me, demons came to visit me in my room. I saw them physically and I was scared out of my mind. So I asked Jesus to help me and when I finally had the courage to get out of bed, I walked through my parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; big house and over to their bedroom. Their door was usually locked, but on that night it was open. My parents were on their knees at their bedside praying for my soul. Crying, I confessed that I wanted to come back to Jesus and they prayed for me. From that day I knew that I would never go back again. Jesus was the way forward. My Wife Karen When I met my beloved wife Karen in 1987, we both knew that one day we would serve Jesus full time, even though we had no clue of how. During one of our crises in the period of our engagement, my parents advised Karen to go to Zealand. "He doesn't deserve you", they said. Everyone told her to stay away from "Niller", as I was called back then. It was a miracle that she endured. But she feared God more than she feared me. She knew as well as I did that it was 7

An Ultimatum After one year of our world trip honeymoon, Karen and I moved to West Jutland to start a church with my sister and brother-in-law. We became part of a team of ten young people and when I found out whom I was to live with for the next year, I was ready to set off for home. Two others on the team 8

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had the same idea, they knew "Niller" and he sure wasn’t known for anything good. After two weeks I was given an ultimatum: Either I should repent of my selfishness and lack of co-operative will or else I would be kicked out. This would have been a defeat, which I couldn't accept, so I decided that I would change. It was all about something so common as getting up in the morning and cleaning and washing up. It cost me a great effort, and at this time it also became evident that my wife was three months’ pregnant. From this point it went completely wrong. I got a depression. For six months I talked about suicide every day and every morning I could see a black cloud over my head, when I got up. I believe this was the worst period of my life. If a doctor had examined me, I am convinced that he would have prescribed anti-depressive medication. At the time of my wife's delivery, I was more depressed than ever. I was not really excited about the baby coming, and as we entered the delivery hall, I was so emotionally cold, I almost frightened myself. I was convinced that I could never love this child. The birth was complicated. The placenta was stuck and my wife was haemorrhaging. She was taken to the operating theatre and all of a sudden, there I was, alone with our new born daughter in my arms. At this moment I became overwhelmed with love and fell completely in love with this tiny tot. However, the depression was still there. In spite of the family growth, I continually spoke of suicide, and this was more than my wife could take, coming home after three weeks in a hospital bed. She forced me to go and see a Christian counsellor, and this led to my salvation. The man got a word from God and pointed to the cause of my problem – the fact that I hadn't honoured my parents. The truth set me free, and I was completely delivered from my depression.

The Call We came to northern Zealand as a small family after being two years on the move. I began to study at the Copenhagen Business School, and my wife, who is a journalist, got a job with the local newspaper. Life was perfect. We lived in a little dream house in the woods of Tisvildeleje and were financially well off. Life just rolled along, as we fished people for Jesus and brought them to Hillerød’s Free Church. It was almost too good to be true. We were expecting our second child, and suddenly my wife asked me, what I would do, if the child turned out to be handicapped. I told her to stop making those negative confessions. Other people get handicapped children, but this would never happen to us. And it didn't, to begin with. We had a son, Magnus, named after my father, now that my relationship to my parents was restored. I graduated as a bilingual secretary and was to begin my MA studies in order to become an interpreter. In the car on the way home from the graduation party I was in my own thoughts, when suddenly I experienced the awesome presence of God. I feared the windows would literally blow, as God spoke to me: "Go to Bible school, your time has come!" he said, and I was reminded of the words in the Bible, where the prophet Ezekiel was asked to eat a scroll, tasting like sweet honey. When I came home in the middle of the night, I found my wife awake. I told her that God had spoken to me about Bible school. "Hallelujah!" she said. What a wife! We hadn't arranged anything or talked about this, but for years she had wanted for me to begin studying the word of God.

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Fever Cramps We went to the Pentecostal high school in Mariager with our two children. At this point I changed my name. The “Old Niller", who was actually Niels-Christian, was replaced. Now I just called myself Christian, indicating that it was time for something new. I almost wore out all my pens just taking notes and while consuming the "scrolls", I discovered that God’s word was like sweet honey for my soul. However, this joy was only brief. One day our three-year-old daughter fell into fever cramps and with a complete turnout we were taken to the hospital. It was a terrible experience, which repeated itself three times in one month. The cramps didn't cease without a large dose of nerve stabilising remedy – Benzodeazepin - and when Oline woke up after her third attack, she was lame in the right side and was unable to speak. The diagnosis was given. Oline had suffered a cerebral thrombosis during her fever cramps. One side of the brain was badly damaged, and because of all this, we had to end our stay at the high school. I was shocked and frustrated, because God had just spoken to me about eating "scrolls" – and this was simply impossible at the hospital, where we spent the next month with doctors performing various treatments. During all this I was still thinking about, how God could give me a taste of his word and then allow a situation like this, where we were taken home in an ambulance aeroplane, with a daughter in a wheelchair. I had taken a brake from my MA studies in order to be able to go to Bible school in Mariager and the plan was then that I would continue my studies after the summer. Meanwhile some pretty heavy things happened during the Spring, which caused me to be less proud and arrogant.

The Faith Movement I was known as quite an extreme opponent of the faith movement in Denmark, to such an extent that I once threatened to beat up a Pastor from a church in Copenhagen. I called him a “cult leader” and accused him of brainwashing one of my friends who had started attending his church. Today I can see how the radical preaching of God’s word saved my friend’s life, as he was previously giving in to sin, in the church where he came from. But now, with a handicapped child, I was no longer as critical towards my Christian brothers and sisters. At this point I had but one goal, which was to receive a divine miracle in my family and in my own life. We were granted aid service by the administrative district, and during our first weekend off, after our stay at the hospital, we were invited to a faith conference in Aalborg. When registering we were quite hesitant, but we still had a desperate longing to receive more from the Lord. The teaching in the afternoon service was about the double portion anointing - concerning how Elisha refused to let go of Elijah, until he had attained the double portion of Elijah’s power. The teaching at the evening service was yet by another faith preacher. He spoke so clearly into my situation, and when he closed his sermon by making an altar call for everyone with grief in their lives, I quickly responded. I knew that this was a word of knowledge for me, as my heart was filled with nothing but grief over Oline and our whole situation. There were many people who responded to the call. I began to weep hard, and at one point I had to go out and blow my nose. When I came back from the rest room, I heard the pastor make another call. I wondered why he made a call twice, but still I approached the front. Startled, I discovered that I was in

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the wrong line. The people standing around me desired prayer for sicknesses, not for grief. I looked behind me and saw hundreds of people worshipping with lifted hands, while I was diligently trying to think of some disease or something I might have had, which would justify my position in the line. I felt like everyone was looking at me and I didn’t dare return to my seat. However, as I considered my situation, faith began to rise inside of me. I said to myself, “I am not leaving until I get my miracle. I will not let you go before you have touched me, Jesus!” The pastor prayed for the first one and then the next, as he laid his hands upon them. I stood as in a combat position, which I had learnt from karate, because I had seen people being pushed to the floor under the “power of God”. And I was not about to fall. Instead of laying hands on me, the pastor simply pointed at me and began to prophesy about my childhood and teenage years with such a precision, that my whole body trembled. He closed by saying, that satan had currently been harsh towards my family, but that God had a great plan for us and that I would come to be known as a fisher of men. “God is calling you to be an evangelist!” he cried, and right at that moment I was blown almost 6 feet sideways into the air. What happened thereafter is difficult to explain. I could hear a terrible sound of grieving, and then I saw myself in a vision, lying as in a womb inside myself, as if something was being born. It was a strange experience and I could not quite comprehend what had taken place. I thought it might have been a release of my ministry, however, today I am convinced that it was a demon that came out.

whole situation in his hands. But how this was going to come to pass, I had no idea and eventually I began to doubt whether it really was the right thing for me to continue my business studies. That summer we saw how our daughter miraculously got up and began to walk. Our lives became even more focused on Jesus. When I heard that a well-known Swedish pastor was to preach in the faith church in Copenhagen, I decided to go there, with a desire to have the prophecy and the calling, which I had received in Aalborg, confirmed. I placed myself in the back row, so that the people, whom I had resisted through the years, wouldn’t notice me and gloat over me. I was quite negative and my prejudice was certainly confirmed, when the Swedish pastor began to preach without an interpreter. It was my perception that everyone in the faith movement were completely ‘Swedishised’, because many of the members had been to Bible school in Sweden. As I was standing there talking to an acquaintance, this pastor suddenly began to push his way through the crowd and walked down towards me. He took hold of my hands and led me to the front of the pulpit, where he began to prophesy about my calling to be an evangelist. The prophecy was crystal clear and confirming. I walked away wondering how this prophecy was to come to pass. I loved Jesus and led many people to Him, yet I was so unchanged and known as a “Christian bully”. A month later, after the end of my study break, I was to continue my business studies. However, I had such a burning desire for more of God’s word in my life. I missed the time we had in Mariager and looked forward to the day when we could return. My first school day was strange. For twelve years, becoming an interpreter, had been my goal and now, finally

The Countdown From that day the countdown to the complete transformation of my life began. When I got up, I was confident that God had our 13

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passing through the eye of a needle, it no longer seemed so important. During my fourth class God spoke once again: “Cancel your studies and seek me. Get up and leave!” The words came to my mind loud and clear. I wrote a note to a friend sitting beside me, telling her I was quitting my studies. She looked at me with disbelief. “Give it some time Christian!” she said. I said: “I’ve already done that!” After that I got up and said goodbye to the teacher and the students. Karen wondered why I came home so early. “Can you guess what happened?” I asked her, after which she started to laugh. She knew right there that I had quit my studies. “So what now?” she asked. “Bible school!” I said. We both laughed for we knew where God was taking me next.

2. THE DELIVERANCE I was thrown through the air and I could hear terrible screams. I felt my arms and legs randomly moving around, as I pushed over all the chairs around me. When I made a call to the Copenhagen Bible Training Centre to speak with the study co-ordinator, he responded with silence. I told him that I wanted to go to Bible school and I asked if it was possible to join the next class. I could not send the application form in time, because the courses were beginning in two days. My phone call came as quite a shock to the leaders, because I was known as one of the zealous persecutors of the faith movement. They thought that I was sent by satan to destroy their school, however, luckily there was one who believed me. And it was on account of his words that I was admitted. My family and friends were shocked when they heard about my decision. At that time, they believed that the Bible school in Copenhagen was the worst imaginable place, but we could not return to Mariager, because our schedule was determined by the medical attention Oline required, which included her doctor, physiotherapist and speech therapist. I feared the faith movement myself, but I had more fear for the God who had spoken to me. I was the first student from our denomination and I met a lot of resistance, but then again, I was used to that. My decision was final and when I returned my student card to the business school, there was no turning back. I remember, I arrived with two earrings, a ponytail and a pack of cigarettes in my pocket. At that time, when I entered through the door, I 15

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was unaware of the fact that one year of teaching was not enough for me. I was to remain for two years. I was very nervous, and when they started praying in tongues and shouting out to God, I crept down between the chairs, so scared that I almost cried. Luckily God had given me a scripture: “Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” This word from the book of Joshua 1: 9 (NIV) was my point of support, which I quoting to myself lying there on the floor.

Our prayers didn’t amount to much that weekend, but when my brother-in-law preached in our church that Sunday, I went forward for prayer, in tears. I felt quite strange and could not understand why I was crying. He laid hands on me and prayed that God’s love would touch me. At the point when he was about to go, he turned around and said: “Satan, I command you to return what you have stolen!” I was thrown through the air and I could hear terrible screams. I felt my arms and legs randomly moving around, as I pushed over all the chairs around me. “Jesus!” I said. “You know, I have prayed for the sick and led many people to you. This is not a demonic manifestation!” I thought to myself convinced that Christians couldn’t have demons.

Like a Chameleon I was still hungry for this honey sweet Word. I listened and took notes at the same pace as I did in Mariager, almost giving me finger cramps. During this time I contacted my brother-in-law, who is a priest, and arranged for him and his wife to come and preach in our church. The plan was then that we would fast that very weekend and find out what was wrong with me. Something, whatever it was, was definitely wrong. Personally, I felt that I had done everything I could to prepare myself. I had cut off my ponytail twice just to please the religious Christians, who told me that if I desired the blessing of God, I should change my hairstyle and dress properly. I had yielded to people so many times, I almost began to feel like a chameleon. There were also many well-meaning Christians, who said, that it was my fault and God’s punishment on me, that our daughter was handicapped. That summer the church in Hillerød was visited by some intercessors from the church’s Bible school. I hadn’t noticed them, but they had seen me and detected a strong demonic activity in my life. Later on they shared this with my sister and brother-in-law, because they feared that these demonic powers would make me kill my wife and children one-day. I would like to emphasise that at this time I was a member of the church leadership, a cell-group leader and frequently assisted in the worship group.

The Transformation After this experience I cried continuously for three days. The first night I woke up by the sound of someone talking in my bedroom and I realised, that it was myself, praising God in tongues, as I was asleep. The following day on my way to school, I turned on the radio as usual. But this time my ears began to hurt and I was repulsed and almost felt like vomiting. I had to turn it off right away, and at that moment I realised that I couldn’t withstand listening to worldly music anymore. I put on a tape with my own band, and ended up throwing it out the window, while driving the car on the freeway. I was repulsed by my own music. For two years I listened to nothing but the softest worship music. My friends thought I was becoming very fanatical. God’s wisdom is great and honour be to Him that he allowed me to be delivered in my own church, by the ministry of my brother-in-law, who is one of the national leaders of the

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church. Everyone respected his ministry and no one could deny the miracle, which had happened to me. Had I been delivered the first time at the faith movement’s Bible school, the miracle would have been excused with comments like: “those faith people always see demons everywhere”. I myself had used those very words to condemn them. The transformation after the deliverance was immense. My wife got a new husband. The raging outbursts that controlled my life disappeared and I was a new person. I called my brother-in-law, who had prayed for me. “What do you think has happened to me?” I asked. He thought it must have been something spiritual or demonic - without making a biblical elaboration of what had happened.

A month later, it happened again. This time it was a Norwegian pastor, who preached wonderfully about the Holy Spirit. He didn’t speak, he whispered, and there was a powerful presence of God in the room. He gave an altar call. I was an usher and did not consider being prayed for. However, when I saw my classmate twisting around on the floor during the prayer, I could feel something inside, almost like a cramping sensation. I realised that I wasn’t quite free yet. As the last person, I approached the front and the pastor simply looked at me and cried out: “I break that ice in the name of Jesus!” It happened again, and I had now come to a point where I hardly had the courage to be prayed for anymore, because I feared my own reaction.

The Cracking Dam When the first demon came out, it was like a dam that burst. It began by cracking up, and all of a sudden the dam could not contain the pressure and it burst open. I had truly been broken and the tears ran freely in the following period, which was about one and a half years. Some months later we had a pastor visiting from Indonesia. In the middle of a teaching session she suddenly stopped, and then she began to run around the room, praying for people. I stood there in the middle of the row, trying to hide myself, but then suddenly she came over, took my hand and led me up front. She looked at me and cried: “In the name of Jesus, come out!” I bent over, as if punched. After this, she laid her finger on me: “loose him!” she said, after which my back hit the floor. Once again I was free and thought to myself, “I wonder how long this will continue”. I knew that I had more impure things in my life, but the fact that I reacted so violently every time, was almost embarrassing.

Kill the Pastor At the end of the school period, we were to finish the course, “Angels and Spiritual Powers”. It was to be held in the large hall, where intercessory prayer would be offered to all that might need it. At this point I had been exposed to the work of the master surgeon for almost a year and in spite of all the changes in me, I could still sense something unresolved. I was late that morning. Anonymously, I placed myself in the back row and was then told to come forward for prayer, if I felt that the Holy Spirit had reminded me of some things during the worship. All the Bible school teachers stood in the front with lifted hands praising Jesus. As I looked at the principal, a thought raced through my mind, “thrash him!” it said. I tried to ignore it, but the thought persisted. “Thrash the pastor!” Crazy. I slapped my forehead hard. “Kill the principal!” Again I put my hands to my head. “Kill the Pastor now!” said the voice, and then I realised that I needed help. I was shaking up all over

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and felt like falling. Slowly I moved away from the chairs and began to approach the teachers. I intended to tap the pastor on the shoulder and ask him for help, but when I saw him my fist came up to his face. I was just about to strike him, when his eyes almost burned through me, and a power that I could not resist cast me through the air. My friends told me that my face became like that of a demon the very moment I grabbed the pastor. My eyes rolled back and after this they struggled with me as I raged. For 45 minutes I supported the weight of my body on my fists, while several strong men lay on top of me trying to restrain me. I had but one thought in mind, and that was to kill the pastor. Desperately I tried to break free, so I could get him and I smashed my fists to the floor like crazy. Finally, when it was over, my arms were yellow and blue and suddenly I had found a deep respect for this young pastor, whom the Christians, as well as myself, had scorned. I saw that day how the demons hated this man, and after this, I began to respect him. Today he is my pastor and my friend.

and started fiddling with my backpack. I woke up in combat position and found myself half way outside the park. I stood in front of him as he screamed in terror. I have no idea how I got out of my sleeping bag, or how I had jumped over the fence that surrounded us. These were the kind of powers that controlled my temper. I have had a number of other strange experiences, which originate from this condition. For many years I suffered from claustrophobia. The attacks came at night when I was asleep. I had experiences of being strangled and where I desperately fought for my breath. During these phobias, I acted in a partially sleeping and partially awake condition, and woe to whoever would attempt to stop me. Once, when Karen and I spent the night at a family’s house, I woke up in the morning realising that I had just had claustrophobia. However, it was not until I saw the hole in the wall that I understood how serious the situation was. I had punched my fist through the wall and there were pieces of plaster lying on my bed. My knuckles, however, were fine. This experience frightened me, because I could sense powers inside of me, which I did not understand.

Evil Powers You can wonder how such anger and evil can get into someone. However, in my case I knew how, as for years I had been training myself to kill in the quickest and most effective way. In short, I had filled myself with murderous demons, during my combat training. With everything I had, I devoted myself to this sport and I enjoyed the acknowledgement and respect I was given, when people heard that I trained in karate. Karate was part of my identity and I was known to be consistently diligent and alert. If I was out at night and heard a sound, I would jump into combat position. This happened instinctively, without me thinking of it. One time while in Peru, I was in the middle of a park in a big city, sleeping in a sleeping bag. While I was asleep, a thief came 21

Nicotine The summer passed by and I was about to begin my second year at the Bible school. I had smoked during the entire first year and I realised that I couldn’t cheat myself through the second year with the tobacco. There was no mercy, either the cigarettes had to go, or I would have to go. I wanted to quit smoking, because I knew that my second year would be my “jubilee”, a season where victory truly would break through in my life. And this is why the battle was extra hard. I did not stop until the Wednesday, I started school, 22

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and the following weekend I fell again. After this I had three smoke-free days - but then that was over. The cigarettes prevailed again, as I tried to resist, but with no luck. One afternoon I suddenly understood whom my real enemy was. I was standing in my garden, when I clearly heard a voice say: “There are still some undamaged cigarettes in the woodburning stove.” I went inside to have a look - and just as I thought, there were the cigarettes, precisely as the voice had said. As I stood there struggling with my choice and then finally giving in and smoked, my daughter came over to me and asked me what I was doing. At that moment I realised that I was collaborating with a voice in my head. The same day two people separately prophesied over me, saying that if I didn’t quit smoking at once, I would end up backsliding, which to me is the same as dying. I simply cannot live without God, a conclusion I came to when I accepted Jesus at 16 years of age. The following day at the Bible school, I felt so condemned by my own conscience that I ran out during the lecture, went to a cafe, sat down and smoked. After this I went back to my teachers and asked them to pray for me. I knew that I had a demon, and true enough, I did. The teachers had barely laid hands on me, when I hit the floor and the demon manifested. After a while, when I had recovered, I had a strong need to smoke. “You must pray for me more!” I said, convinced that I had a “spirit of nicotine.” But I was wrong. My teachers said: “Christian, it’s not the nicotine. It’s the rebellion against God, that’s holding you captive.” With this word of knowledge I received a vision of a galley slave, whose chains were broken, and at that moment I was free. I jumped and danced, as I cried in joy and praised the Lord. However, the devil didn’t give up so easily. One of the following nights I woke up with the taste of nicotine in my mouth and a smell of tobacco in the bedroom. My first thought was that I

had smoked. I was unhappy and I thought I might as well start smoking again, until I realised that the devil is a liar. Once again I thanked Jesus for my freedom, knowing that it was just a deception. However, several days passed before the taste of the nicotine in my mouth was gone.

Impurity In a similar way I have experienced an attack from the devil after being delivered from a spirit of impurity. Several nights I woke up because I was being “haunted” in my dreams by a woman, who wanted to seduce me. I did not know this woman but I confessed it to my wife, after which we prayed together. It happened again the following night. I was very unhappy. I knew that this was more than just a dirty dream, but I didn’t know how to deal with the attack on my mind. I cried and prayed, but the woman returned and this night I had sex with her. It was just as real as if I had been with my own wife. I expected to find this woman by my side the following morning, but instead I found my wife. I prayed and I cried again, and the next time this woman came to my bed, I called my wife in my dream. Together we exposed the woman’s agenda and we chased her away in the name of Jesus. Today I know that it was a demon that had entered my dreams. The demon reacted, when it heard the name of Jesus and it never returned, as I had now closed all the entrances to my mind. In fact, I no longer allow myself to dream. I ask Jesus to fill my mind every night and I resist everything with even the slightest touch of impurity.

Conquering Demons

The Tiger It became autumn and I was pretty sure that I was free. I was now a changed man and could be prayed for without having to end up on the floor between the chairs. Everything in me was different, until December 1994, when we had a pastor from Uganda visit the local church. It was his first time in Denmark. No one knew him, but he had an attractive résumé. This Sunday I played the piano in the worship team. After the worship the man approached the pulpit. “The Holy Spirit spoke to me about doing something, before I begin my sermon.” he said, and then he called on me to come forward. I was pleased and I expected that he probably had a word from the Lord. At this point in time it was like I had run into a whole stream of encouragements. “God wants to use you and you truly desire to serve Him” he continued, - at this stage I stood in front of the platform waiting for my prophecy - “but when you were playing the piano before, it was like I saw a big cat standing over your shoulders!” I pondered, while the man explained how this cat stood there hissing with its aggressive claws and open mouth. “I don’t know what it means, but I see a demon from Japan!” the man said, and from this point I remember no more. The church told me afterwards that I at that very moment went flying backwards through the air and landed on my fingertips, while I roared like a tiger. It was a frightening backward flip in front of the eyes of a whole church. When it occurred to me what had happened, I wept in anguish. “Jesus, how can I ever know when I am truly free?” I prayed. But then this completely unknown preacher came over, helped me to my feet and said: “Young man. Never again shall any demon torment your mind. From this day you are free!” And I knew that he was speaking the truth.

Now it was time to take back what the devil had stolen. On this day I consecrated my life to tell people about Jesus, to strive after the gift of discerning spirits and to set people free. After this final deliverance at an ordinary Sunday service the fear of the Lord came over the church, at least for a period. I think most people cried that morning. My wife also cried. She cried on my behalf and wondered just like me, whether this would continue. After the service I sat down and thought about this cat character, which the pastor had talked about. It reminded me of something familiar, namely the logo from Shotokan Karate, which I had carried on my sports bag and T-shirt. The logo was a roaring tiger with aggressive claws. I started training karate just after I had been saved, but no one told me then that this would involve an entrance for demons. Today I know better, not least after hearing a radio broadcast about karate a few years ago. It was an interview with one of the highest graduates in Denmark, who explained how karate wasn’t a sport but a lifestyle. He talked about the philosophy behind the belts - about how you start with the white belt as a beginner and then move towards graduating for a black belt. The white belt symbolises purity, while the black belt symbolises impurity. “After this it is no longer about physical exercises, but spiritual experiences with the light, where you draw your powers and inspiration.” he said and gave some examples of how old people in Japan achieve supernatural strength. Once you even attempt to attack them, you are struck to the ground. They don’t even have to touch their opponent. They just use the energy, which they have drawn from the lord of light through meditation.

Conquering Demons

Satan or Lucifer, as he is also referred to, appears as an angel of light, while we Christians continue to live in deception. The people of God perish due to their lack of knowledge, and my ignorance, including the ignorance of my leaders resulted in my downfall and burden. If someone had just addressed my “problems” as sin and preached repentance instead of practically blessing my backslidden condition, then I may never have needed deliverance. It was not until the Word entered my heart and I truly repented that I was set free.

Conquering Demons

3. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE We slept on the floor in the living room and had just gone to sleep, when we were awakened by terrible screams and a voice crying: “Help me, leave me alone!” The sound came from the bedrooms upstairs. As a new-born Christian I was very afraid of the devil. I got Goosebumps every time I heard about exorcisms. “You should not occupy yourself with such things. It can be dangerous!”, my leaders explained and told me how it was important to be firmly rooted in the Word, if the demons were to be driven out. A frightening and warning example, I found in the New Testament, where demons attacked some unstable souls, as they attempted to cast them out: (Acts 19:13-16) Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

I was absolutely sure that I would never try anything like that. I simply didn’t dare to. Partially because of the warning my leaders gave me, but probably also because I wasn’t free myself. I later found that these sons of Sceva were not even Christians. They did not have the power of God and the demons were therefore able to attack them. However, I knew only a little about the Bible and was unaware that this was part 27

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of my calling as a believer: to preach the Word, heal the sick and cast out devils. For the many years as a Christian, I lived in conscious sin. I could testify about Jesus and I could pray for the sick - but demons, I preferred leaving to others, who were more “holy” than I, to deal with.

natural area outside of town and after a few wonderful days there, they invited us to their home. We slept on the floor in the living room and had just gone to sleep, when we were awakened by terrible screams and a voice crying: “Help me, leave me alone!” The sound came from the bedrooms upstairs. The hairs stood up on the back of our necks. Without being able to further explain it, we were convinced that this involved demons. The next morning we shared our nightmare with the family. It turned out that they had a third daughter, who was locked up in a kind of rubber cell. The girl had become insane after hitting her head when she was little. Her personality had changed from one day to another. Now she lived in this rubber cell so she wouldn’t harm herself. We were permitted to visit her once. She sat there and hissed and tried to bite me. I had a piece of paper in my hands, which she suddenly snatched and began to eat. My wife and I were both terrified. After this experience a long time passed by before we asked God to show us demons again.

Encountering Demons During my upbringing in the church I never saw an exorcism. My only access to this issue was through our missionaries in Africa, who were able to share, notably about Africans who were delivered, and that their demons, during this process had started speaking to missionaries in Danish. My wife was more experienced. She grew up in the state church, in charismatic circles, and even before I met her she had been involved in the casting out of demons. The first time we experienced demons together was during our honeymoon. We travelled, hiking through North and South America, to Australia and onwards to Thailand and we experienced many miracles on this trip. In spite of the fact that we were far from being consecrated, we had promised God that we would pray for all the sick, whom He sent our way. We experienced that God confirmed His Word, every time we took a new step of faith. My wife could not get enough. When we reached Chile, she thought that we should take another step of faith and start casting out demons. “We could ask God to show us some demons!” she suggested. I had no comments. God wanted to teach us and at this point in time He began to show us a few of the things, which we have been working with more and more in the past few years. We stayed with a family with two children for about a week in Santiago. We met them during our camping trip in a beautiful 29

I was frightened because I lacked knowledge. The word of God was not in my heart: 1 John 4:4 says that He that is within you, is greater than he, who is in the world. Today I live in the Word. I know God and I know who I am, because of the grace He poured upon me, when Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose on the third day. I know which authority He has invested in me, when I walk in faith on His word, and I no longer allow myself to be frightened when I see demons manifesting. On the contrary, I enjoy casting them out, because I too have experienced the transformation, which happened, when I was delivered.

Conquering Demons

Afraid of the devil When Christians are afraid of evil spirits, it is because of lack of knowledge (Hos. 4:6). It is our task to seek this knowledge, for God has given us everything through our knowledge of Him (2 Pet. 1:3). The knowledge that God’s people lack, is found in the Bible, which is God’s word. The Bible is not just a historical book or a book filled with good, religious principles. It is the manual written by God, who has created us and who knew us from the beginning of time, before we were born. Here God’s thoughts are found, which set things in the right perspective. God desires to reveal his purpose to his children. He will expose the devil’s strategy, so that you do not become prey to his evil plans. It is not the will of God for you to fear the devil. The Bible teaches that we should fear God.

the Lord, I would have striven for holiness and the power to cast out demons.

(Luke 12:4-5) I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has the power to throw into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

It is not the devil, but God, who has the power to throw into hell. The devil has no more power in your life, than what you grant him, and he has absolutely no right to harm us, when we are God’s children and as believers stand on the foundation of the Word. The fear of the Lord is not a condition of fear, but rather a deep respect for everything, which has to do with the Kingdom of God. This respect will always result in a blatant exclusion of sin. (Prov. 8:13) To fear the Lord is to hate evil.

I did not understand this, because of the sin, which was destroying my life. I believed that I was free, but this so-called “freedom” led me into condemnation in my relationship to God. If I had feared

Created to have Dominion It is not the will of God, for us to creep before the demons. God has created us to have dominion, which we can read about in the first book of the Bible. God created heaven and earth with all its splendour, and as the crown of His masterpiece, He created man to keep the garden. The word keep is the Hebrew word shamar, which means to guard, observe, give heed, or to keep watch and ward, to protect against intruders and to save life (Gen. 2:15). Everything was very good - until the first people ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God instructed them not to eat off the tree. However, instead of following God’s will, man chose to go his own ways. Eve listened to satan, who appeared to her in the form of a serpent and Adam followed Eve’s example. Thereby, they both lost their fellowship with God. The disobedience of the first human beings became the cause of the fall of all mankind. Adam forgot that he was called to keep the garden. He did not see the enemy, and the consequence of this was sin, to which everything living on planet earth is subject this very day. The basic meaning of the word sin, is “to miss the goal”. God had a goal when He created the earth. It was his purpose for us to live in fellowship with Him and to have dominion over all creation. However, man did not reach the goal, which was God’s original plan. By disobeying the word of God, man turned over the dominion to God’s opponent, satan. The consequence of sin was irreversible: God could not just cross out the sin and restore the lost paradise by e.g. creating a new Adam like the first one, who was made of “the dust of the 32

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ground”. All of creation, not just man, had fallen in sin. Everything was under the curse, including the earth. If God were to retract the earth, He would be going against His own word:

Wickedness did not get the last word. When Jesus rose from the dead, all of hell’s army shook. He broke the power of death and led the captives (demons) in his train, triumphing over them by the cross (Col. 2:15). Before this it was the devil who had the power. “It has been given to me.” he said, when he tempted Jesus in desert in Luke 4:6. After the death of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection, the spiritual balance of power became positive. God gave Jesus the authority, which man had lost because of disobedience. And just before Jesus returned to heaven, He shared the good news with his disciples:

(Gen. 3:17-18) To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘you must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

The Second Adam The account of the fall of man is foundational to our understanding of the world we live in. Man is in the hands of the evil one, and it is not God’s perfect will, we see expressed in the world today. Mankind suffers because of the consequence of sin. However, after the fall of man, God provided a way out of this misery. He sent his Son in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, who literally bore the curse of the earth, with “thorns and thistles”, i.e. the crown of thorns on His head. The first Adam was created from the dust of the earth, while Jesus, who is also referred to as “the second Adam”, came from heaven. (1. Cor. 15:47) God sent Jesus to win back the dominion for man. Man was cursed, but Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law. He became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). He restored the relationship between God and man when He died as the perfect, sinless substitution and made atonement for the sins of man by shedding His own blood. (Heb. 2:14-15) Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

(Matt. 28:18) All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

The word given is the Greek word didomi, which means “to get something back, which already belongs to you.” The Believers Authority When Jesus is given all the power in our lives, satan no longer has any power. We belong to Jesus and give Him room in our lives. We are therefore able to exercise authority in the name of Jesus and rule over the devil. We are positioned with Jesus in the heavens to rule with Him. Not just in the coming world, but now in the present. If you receive this, it becomes yours in the same way as your salvation did, when you received it in faith. If you do not exercise your authority, you easily fall prey to the devil’s snare. The devil has but one aim: to steal, kill and destroy that which, according to God is yours. As a child of God, you are an inheritor of the heavenly glory. The day you became a Christian, the glory became yours. It’s all on your account, however, you must know the

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account number and understand what God has granted you by His grace in order to obtain the glory. First of all, it is for your own benefit, but also for the benefit of others, when you walk on God’s word and cast out demons in the name of Jesus.

(Jer. 1:9-10) Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.

Jesus has Conquered You should know who your opponent is, in order to overcome him and expose his tactics. Satan operates in the same way as he always has. He questions God’s authority. He sows doubt into people’s minds, while telling them the same old lies and tempting them with “new” knowledge, just like he tempted man in the very beginning. Do not allow yourself to be confused: satan is not God. Jesus has conquered and satan is neither omniscient, omnipotent, nor is he almighty. (Luke 10:17-19) The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

Just like the demons obeyed the disciples, so too can we expect them to obey us, who believe. The enemy can not harm us, when we use the name of Jesus. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He has not changed and His word remains the same. God’s word is of a special substance. God created earth with His word. The Word is able to create and with His word on our tongues, we can expect the supernatural. He who has the Word, has the authority:

The Word gives us authority. It is therefore important that we know the Word and use it. With the Word on our tongue, God gives us the authority over any enemy, not just small demons, but also the big princes of darkness. Lack of Knowledge We fall short without the knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is not enough that you read this book, or read the whole Bible for that matter. You must have a personal revelation of the Word, because no one can live upon the faith, experiences or indications of others. At a series of services in Kenya, I travelled with a team from Denmark. During a campaign in the Capital city of Kenya, Nairobi, my wife and another woman attempted to cast out a demon of a young girl. They had trouble getting it out and at a point they both felt indisposed. They hurried away from the street and sought prayer for themselves. The girl instantly felt better, but my wife contracted a high fever. As she lay in the hotel room shaking, she realised that she had opened up to fear during the prayer for the demon-possessed girl. She believed she knew the Word, but nevertheless she became a victim of the devil’s snare. She was delivered from fear after this incident. My mother-in-law and her friend went out to pray for a Christian sister, who needed deliverance from depression. They had no experiences with demons, but as they began to pray, one of them was struck in the stomach and the other 36

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began to struggle with her breathing. They were confused over the manifestations and allowed themselves to be frightened, so they gave up.

delivered me. Later on I discovered that she was employed at one of the occult workshops in town.

These were two frightening incidences. My wife believed she knew the Word, but the fear in her mind allowed the demons to enter and thus she implicitly gave the enemy an opportunity to harm her. My mother-in-law believed she knew the Word, but instead of exercising authority in Jesus name, she allowed herself to be frightened. (Luke 8:18) Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.

This can be the sad outcome, for those who lack the knowledge of God’s word. Jesus lives within you like a jewel in a vessel of clay. Jesus is strong, but your mind and your body is fragile. I speak from experience, for I have been attacked by a demon myself: A few years ago, I was to be sent out on a trip to the Republic of Belarus. It was to occur after the Sunday service and my pastor requested the surrounding people to lay hands on me and pray for me. During the service a woman, who had never been to the church entered. I had already noticed her because I could sense in my spirit that she was full of demons. When the pastor made the invitation, she ran straight up through the room and laid her hands on me, as the first one. She massed something strange and when she was done, she walked straight out of the church. I felt that something had come upon me and in fear I ran over to my pastor. He asked for forgiveness for encouraging a corporate laying on of hands, after which the brothers prayed for me and

When you lay your hands on people, a transmission of power occurs in the spiritual world. What you have, is what you give. This woman was impure and planted impurity in my mind. Today I do not allow just anyone to lay their hands on me. (1. Tim. 5:22) Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.

No More Goosebumps During my time at Bible school, the word of God caused me to attain a completely new kind of boldness, so that I no longer get Goosebumps or hide myself when I see a demon. Now I grab the “bull by its horns”, because I know that the devil and his demons have no right to harass mankind. One December morning the dog began to bark. A man stood outside the house crying for help. He came inside and had some milk. It appeared that the man was a backslidden Christian, who had kept a distance to our family for a long time, probably because he knew that I didn’t like his spirit. He was barely inside before the demons began to manifest. He fell down on our kitchen floor, on which we fought a physical battle. The man was so strong that he managed to move the washing machine with a kick and finally my mother-in-law and my wife had to sit on him, while they tied his legs, just like do with exorcisms in Africa. The demons yelled and screamed for two hours. “We’ll be coming back to kill you. We know you, you know karate!” they said, and I yelled back: “If you know me, then you also know whom I serve and with which authority

Conquering Demons

4. WHO IS SATAN?

I speak!” Subsequently, the demons that manifested that morning, loosed their grip.

The great dragon was hurled down that ancient serpent called the devil, or satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him.

In spite of the fact that demonic manifestations can be quite violent at times, understand this, the devil has no more power, than what you grant him. Do not give the devil the liberty to act. Allow Jesus to be number one and let Him rule as Lord of your life. It is not you, who have conquered the devil. It is Jesus, and to those who believe in His word, he has given the power to exercise authority.

There was quite a number satanists in the town, where I grew up. In the church we didn’t know who they were, but we often saw the signs they left. They certainly marked their presence in town and painted satanic symbols, pentagrams and chopped off chicken’s feet (the so-called “peace signs”) with spray cans on house walls and under road bridges, long before graffiti became popular. These were not just kids having fun, because it continued for over 25 years. We once had a break-in in the church’s youth house. The perpetrators had painted blood on the walls and placed faeces at the corners. Moreover, we found a Bible with faeces on it. Another time they attempted to set the church on fire. We found the remains of a fire in front of the church door, and a state church close by also fell victim to these satanic activities. The media focuses on similar reports from time to time, and it is discussed whether there is talk of “pop-satanism”, or if there are actual rituals behind the activities. Here, that discussion is superfluous, for in this chapter I will show you who stands behind all this and what the Bible tells us about him. Not in order to focus on the works of the devil, but rather to make you conscious of his existence. One of my friends told me how he had played the game of “spirit in the glass” during his service in the army. This is a spiritual “game”, which at times has been quite popular among children and young people. The point of the game is to 39

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ask questions to the spirit in the glass. All the participators lightly touch the glass and the spirit responds by allowing the glass to move from letter to letter on the game board, without the control of the participators. As they played, - and my friend having no knowledge of the game - one of the toughest soldiers addressed the glass, asking it who controlled it. The answer he got was unambiguous. The glass moved across the board, as the participators curiously followed it. The name of the spirit was Lucifer, and this Lucifer described himself as the fallen angel. “What do you look like?” asked the soldier. “You can meet me, if you go up the stairs!” was the reply. The soldier left the living room and approached the stairs. Shortly after, he came down, his face completely pale, as if he had seen the devil himself.

Covenant laid the symbols of Israel’s worship and relationship with God. It was the most holy place. The sanctuary in Jerusalem was a copy of the sanctuary in Heaven (Heb. 9:24). Thus, the cherub that covereth had a special place of dwelling, which had to do with God’s holiness. In Is. 14,11, the Bible talks about Lucifer’s ability to create music, in that it speaks of the noise of his harps. From this, some deduce that the devil was a worship leader in heaven prior to his fall. And this would explain why he specifically seeks to hinder praise and worship in churches today.

The Cherub that Covereth Neither my friend nor the soldier knew the Biblical scriptures about satan who is referred to as “Lucifer” by the prophet Isaiah and “the fallen angel” by the prophet Ezekiel: (Ezek. 28:13-14) You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.

The history of satan began in heaven. He was not just anybody, but a protector or - as it says in the old King James version - a cherub that covereth. Cherubs are spiritual beings, which are ranked higher than the angels in the heavenly realms. In Exod. 25:22 and Heb. 9:5 we read about the cherubim of Glory, which overshadowed the atonement cover of the Ark of the Covenant. Within the Ark of the 41

(Ezek. 28:15-19) You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendour. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries. So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching. All the nations who knew you are appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and will be no more.

Satan was created as a beautiful and trusted archangel. However, unrighteousness was found in him, and he was expelled from Heaven. Pride was the sin that caused satan to fall. Because of pride, he was cast down to the earth, and Isaiah elaborates on the characteristics of pride - that satan desires to be like God, in spite of the fact that the created can never exceed the creator: (Is. 14:12-14) How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who

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once laid low the nations! You said in your heart: “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.

He afflicts people with suffering (Acts 10:38) He incites people to sin (Gen. 3) He attempts to get a foothold (Eph. 4:27) He deceives people (Eph. 2:2) He sets up traps for people (1.Tim. 3:5-7) He seeks to devour people, like roaring lion (1.Pet. 5:8) He steals, kills and destroys (John 10:10) He accuses people before God (Job 1:6-11; Job 2:1-5; Rev.12:10-11)

Satan in the New Testament The New Testament provides another similar description of the dispute in heaven and the fall of satan: (Rev. 12:7-10 + 12) And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: Now have come the salvation and the power of the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before God day and night, has been hurled down. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.

Jesus also talks about this:

When the devil attacks, it is primarily the Christians that he’s after. He already has the people of the world, because they make place for him through the sin in their lives. The battle we fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the forces of evil in the heavenly realms. We are the pieces of one big jigsaw puzzle. Until we understand that evil comes from the devil, we cannot avoid his traps and ambushes. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7) He is under our feet (Rom. 16:20) His time is short (Rev. 12:12)

(Luke 10:18) I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

The Son of God thus witnessed the fall of satan, prior to leaving heaven and entering into this world, born as a human being. Satan’s Evil Plan The nature of the devil is sinful through and through (1. John 3:8). He only has evil thoughts and he is the author of all evil. He hates God and he hates man who is created in the image of God. He sees all mankind as five billion reflections of God and will always attempt to hinder Gods plans for their lives.

When the devil reminds you of your past, then tell him about his future and remind him of the coming judgement. The last book of the Bible talks about his ending: His wickedness and fury will increase in the last days (Rev. 12:12), before he is judged at the thrown and cast into the lake of fire, where he will burn with his demons, and all those who follow him, for ever and ever (Matt. 25:41 + Rev. 20:10). The Names of Satan Satan is mentioned more than 200 times in the Bible, with a total of 26 different names. I will give you the whole list, so 44

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that you can look them up in the Bible for yourself. When you read these scriptures, then notice the meanings of the names, which reflect satan’s character, e.g. beelzebub, lord of the flies. Flies are attracted to everything that is unclean. They sit on carrions and are masters in the art of spreading infections.

Similar to knowing the meaning of the name of Jesus, you must also know the names your opponent, in order to recognise his works. If you are not sure of whom you are dealing with, then judge by the fruits, otherwise you will become an easy victim, like the ones who play the game of “spirit in the glass”. Now, of course satan does not live in a glass, however, he uses this game to seduce people into occupying themselves with dark powers, instead of coming to Jesus, who is the light of the world. You cannot be a spectator of the game and then stop when you’ve had enough. Because this game is never good, like satan is never good. An old proverb says, if you give him a hand, he’ll take the whole arm, which is more than true, even though it doesn’t stem from the Bible. There are no grey zones in the kingdom of God. It is either black or white, evil or good.

Apollyon, the destroyer (Rev. 9:11) Beelzebub, lord of the flies (Matt. 10:25) Belial, meaning worthless, outcast or lawless (2.Cor. 6:15) A roaring lion (1.Pet. 5:8) The evil one (Matt.13:19) The prince of this world (John 12:31 + John 16:11) The god of this age (2.Cor. 4:4) The devil (Rev. 12:9 + 1.Pet. 5:8) The dragon (Rev. 12:3 + Rev. 20:2-7 + Is. 14:29) The enemy (Matt. 13:25) The tempter (Matt. 4:3) The ruler of the kingdom of the air (Eph. 2:2) King (Rev. 9:11 + Eph. 6:12) Lucifer, the morning star - son of the dawn (Is. 14:12) Angel of light (2.Cor.11:14) Liar (John 8:44) Opponent (1.Pet.5:8) Murderer (John 8:44) Anointed cherub (Ezek.28:14) Satan (Job 1:6 + Rev. 12:9) Corrupter of the mind (2.Cor. 11:3) Serpent (2.Cor. 11:3 + Exod. 3:1 + Rev. 12:9 + Exod. 3:14) The thief (John 10:10) Oppressor (Acts 10:38) Ruler of this dark world (Eph. 6:12) The accuser of our brothers (Rev. 12:10 + Job 1 and 2)

(Matt. 12:30) He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.

Satan in Music When the devil tempted Jesus in the desert, he tried to lure him with wealth, power and glory. “All this I will give you”, he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” (Matt. 4:9). He does the very same thing today. Prominent businessmen, actors and well known musicians have openly confessed how they have dedicated their souls to the devil, in order to get these three things. They make a lot of money, have a large influence on people’s lives and enjoy great fame. The price for this, however, is a life in hell behind the setting. These people are controlled by evil spirits, who will ultimately destroy them. 45

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I am a musician myself and I used to hang out a lot in the music environment. Many musicians get their inspiration from within the occult and many of them are very pursuant of spiritual things. For example, I knew two people, who prayed to satan, asking him to give them a sign of his existence. The answer came one night as they lay in their beds. The door swung open and a cold wind streamed into the room. They both experienced being lifted up under the ceiling. They were scared to death, but they could neither move nor shout for help. Time stood still, maybe several minutes passed by before satan disappeared. They didn’t dare to leave their beds after this. It was not until the following morning that they discovered they had experienced the presence of the devil at the same time in separate rooms. For them it was a sign of the existence of the devil, and in their fear of him they sought peace with God. They became Christians, but were never free of the demons, who continued to torment their lives. Today one of them is a heroin addict somewhere in a conurbation outside of Copenhagen. Jim Morrison (1943-71) from the rock group The Doors, described how as a child he drove past a car accident. The victims of this accident were of Indian origin and when Jim Morrison saw them dead, he was frightened. He later wrote a song about the incident. “Some of these dead Indians’ spirits crept into my scullmind and I know, they are still there!” he claimed. Jim Morrison lived as an addict and died of an overdose. Music is an important ingredient in occult séances and satanic rituals. The word music originates from the Greek word muse, which can be defined as a spiritual source of inspiration behind all art.

Conquering Demons

Music is a lot more than tones. There is a spiritual substance that affects the people who are into and practice music. Music is a connecting cord between the physical and the spiritual world. The German composer, Richard Wagner (1813-83) was not only known for his music, but also as an author of many racist articles. Both were used diligently in the nazi propaganda machine during the Second World War. Hitler was a great fan of Wagner and because of this, his great grandchild, Gottfried Wagner rejected his music ever since. He publicly made a warning against his great grandfather’s music at a conference on anti-Semitism in Jerusalem in 1999, because he believes that Wagner’s compositions cannot be separated from his anti-Semitic views. You know how music can effect your emotions. Some music makes you happy, while other types of music can make you sad. Worldly music inspires you to worldliness, and similarly worship music edifies your spirit. If you are a Christian musician, do not look for inspiration in the world. It is better for you to get it from God. Anything else can cost you your soul, because you don’t have a single chance of being able to assort all the spiritual impulses that enter via music, not just in tones, but also in words. Satan and Sex During an occult séance at teachers’ college, a group of students came into contact with a spirit that was so perverse, they could not stand it. It defiled them and presented itself as satan, and the whole room was filled with an uncomfortable presence. The spirit continuously directed its attention to one of the girls, and it was not possible for the participators to 48

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make it leave. In desperation, they finally began to pray the Lords prayer: “Our Father...” When they got to the last line, “for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,” the spirit left her. The next time the spirit came, they placed a Bible on the table and the spirit left again. After this experience they understood that there is more between heaven and earth than meets the eye, and contacted a church to get some more information.

in spite of the Bible’s warning against this. If you have received the gift of healing from God you must offer it with no demands, anything else is deceptive. When the healer “heals”, he or she calls upon spiritual powers in the universe - but how is it possible for the healer to separate the powers of good and evil if this individual has no relationship to God? I know of healers who have become sick as a result of healing, just like there are multiple examples of patients who have contracted psychological problems after having a healer lay hands on them, even in spite of the physical healing. In addition, there are people who have never been healed and who never got their money back after repeated treatments. In the civilised world we feel superior to the less civilised peoples who seek help from their local traditional healers - but we forget that many of the alternative treatments offered in civilised societies are based on inspiration, borrowed from foreign religions amongst wise men and women who practise witchcraft and black magic.

Satan reveals himself in many ways. It turned out that the girl, whom the spirit directed its attention towards, had a satanist boyfriend and that during a ritual intercourse, he had consecrated her to satan. Sex is not just a physical unification of two bodies. Man consists of spirit, soul and body, and if you give yourselves 100 percent to each other, when you have sex, it happens at all three levels, spiritually, in the soul and physically. For this same reason, sex must be confined within the boundaries of marriage, not before or outside of marriage. You cannot give yourself 100 percent to many partners, many times during a lifetime. (1.Cor. 6:18-20) Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.

An Angel of Light It is not always easy to see through the dark works of the devil. Sometimes he appears as an “angel of light”, e.g. through new-age movements, which lure people with spiritual experiences or physical and psychological healing through alternative treatments. For people who do not know the Word, it sounds attractive and good, and they don’t mind paying a small fortune to get “healed” 49

One of my classmates at Business College was planning a visit to a healer for the first time and then I told her the truth about healing: That healers do not work for God’s but for satan’s purpose. She was very stunned, but went ahead anyway. While she lay on the treatment bench at the healer’s, she thought of what I had said. “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!” she said in her thoughts, because she didn’t want to give satan an entrance to her mind. After a few moments, the healer stopped his treatment. “I cannot help you when you’re lying there opposing me!” he said. My classmate was surprised. She was not a believer, but had nevertheless experienced the power in the name of Jesus. After this incident she decided to become a Christian. 50

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We Renounce the Devil In a little Danish provincial town, in the beginning of the 1980’s, the Danish Liberal Party’s youth group had an open seminar in the Community Hal, entitled: “What does God/satan have to offer the youth of today?” The Community Hall was filled with young people, in particular high school students. Also, the Christian youth from that region naturally showed up. The invited lecturers, were a well known Satanist and a Free Church pastor, who were to contend. When the Satanist presented his faith, it was like a veil of smoke covered the congregation. Everything was turned up-sidedown. He said that the Christians were way off-track and that the satanists were the only true Christians in the world today. The Free Church pastor placed himself in opposition and presented his version, however, there was quite a bit of confusion after his appeal. The participants started asking questions, but no one got the answers they wanted. The uncertainty spread and there was unrest in the room. In the middle of this vacuum, the Pastor took the word: “Why don’t we all stand to our feet and corporately make the confession of faith!” he suggested. The suggestion was well received, because most of them had learnt this creed during their confirmation. All the participants stood up and proclaimed, “We renounce the devil and all his works and all of his nature!” Thereafter, a peace descended on the congregation. The light broke through the darkness of confusion and the veil of smoke disappeared.

(Acts 26:18) ...to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Two kingdoms exist, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of satan. Whether you want to be on the winning team is your choice; whether you want to go to Heaven with God and his Angels, or spend your eternity in Hell. It is God’s will that all are saved. Hell was not meant for people, but for satan and all his demons. That is why he rages. He knows his time is short.

The spiritual world is a reality, but there are all too many who do not see the spiritual battle that rages around them. This applies to Christians as well as non-Christians. This is why the gospel must be preached.

Conquering Demons

5. FALLEN ANGELS There are many churches that are bound by demons. The demons sit right up front, occasionally in the leadership. The problem with these demons is that they so often speak the right words. There are thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand angels in heaven (Rev. 5:11), and before the fall of satan there were even more. When satan got kicked out of heaven, he took a flock of angels with him. They were all the ones that were on his side during the dispute with the archangel Michael (Rev. 12:7-9). These angels lost their perfect place in heaven and were degraded to “fallen angels”, or demons. Some theologians believe that satan took a third of the angels with him. They refer to Rev. 12:4, where the dragon’s tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. If in this case the stars mean angels, I’m sure there are quite a few. The Job Description There are many scriptures in the New Testament about demons and their influence on people. Some places they are referred to as demons, other places as evil spirits, spirits of infirmity and unclean spirits. However, do not be confused. They are all different demonic manifestations. Similar to God’s angels being messengers, who minister to the Christians, demons are satan’s messengers who try to oppose Christians in every possible way. They represent satan (Rev. 16:14). They are authorised to attack with disease (Luke 13:16). 53

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They attack with impurity, e.g. with impure thoughts, which may manifest as an unclean spirit, if they are given a chance to settle (Matt. 10:1 + Mark 5:2 ; 7:25 + Luke 8:27-29 + Rev. 16:13 ; 18:2). They sow division between people and seduce the believers (1.Tim. 4:1), e.g. with “spirit in the glass” or by using other means, by which they can deceive people into e.g. “communicating” with their ancestors. They will prompt the leaders of this world to wage war against God and his anointed ones in the last days (Rev. 16:14). The demons are referred to as being “kept in darkness and bound with everlasting chains (Jude v.6 + 2.Pet. 2:4). This does not mean that they are incompetent. The chains refer to their jurisdiction being limited to the boundaries of earth. They have been in heaven and are familiar with the glory, but their wings have been clipped, like they do with ducks that are unable to leave their pond. Just like the devil has to submit to God, demons have to as well. They shudder before God (Jam. 2:19). They acknowledge Christ as Lord and the coming judge (Matt. 8:29 + Luke 4:41). They are cast out in Jesus’ name (Mark 16:17). Just like the angels will spend their eternity with their Lord and Master, so too will the demons go to hell together with satan, to an eternal fire which is meant for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41).

Conquering Demons

Demonic Hierarchy There is a distinction between demons in terms of rank. The Bible refers to demonic powers and principalities, as well as the powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph. 6:12). Likewise, there is a distinction between demons, in terms of evilness. There are princes and ordinary spirits (Matt. 12:24), and some are more evil than others (Matt. 12:45). The Bible mentions ten different kinds of demons - besides all the ones that are not directly mentioned by name. For example the spirit of falsehood (1.John 4:6), as well as envy and selfish ambition (Jam. 3:14-15), which stem from evil spirits. The fear of death is another demonic manifestation (Heb. 2:15), just like there are demons responsible for every vice destroying a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life. There are demons with a number of different duties, besides the ones mentioned here, however, the following survey may be of some help:

Territorial Spirits When Jesus met the demon-possessed man in Decapolis, the region of the Gerasenes, the spirits pleaded and begged him not to send them out of the area (Mark 5:10). Why did they make such a request? Because it was their domain. In fact, the name of the district covers an area comprising ten large cities: Damascus, Dion, Dadara, Gerasa, Hippo, Canatha, Pella, Philadelphia, Paphana and Scythopolis. The territorial spirits are the real giants, who exercise their authority in a particular area, and are thus able to bind and seduce a whole country.

Territorial spirits (Dan. 10:13-20 + Num. 25:1) Spirits of the dead (Lev. 29:27 + Is. 8:19 + 2 Kings 23:24) Spirits of infirmity (Luke 13:11) Deaf and mute spirits (Mark 9:25) Evil spirits (Mark 9:25 + Rev. 18:2) Unclean spirits (Exist in at least 20 places in the Bible, e.g. in Matt. 12:43 + Luke 4:33 + Mark 1:23 + Luke 9:42) Lying spirits (1.Kings 22:22-23 + 2.Cron. 18:21-22) Deceiving spirits (1.Tim. 4:1) Spirits of envy and jealousy (Num. 5:14 + 30)

My wife and I crossed a border between Paraguay and Brazil during our honeymoon trip through South America. The border ran straight through the middle of a town. On one side there was poverty, filth and almost no Christians, while the other side was prosperous, clean and had many Christians. The difference was so great that we discussed it. We could feel that there was something completely wrong. Hence, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve learned that there is a great openness towards the gospel in Brazil, however, the revival had not, at that time reached Paraguay. A Rwandan pastor, who grew up in exile in Uganda, told me about how she had felt a distinct difference in the spiritual world when she returned to Rwanda for the first time. In Uganda she was used to demons screaming at her on the streets, because of the strong anointing on her life. This did not happen in Rwanda, and she was therefore concerned for her own personal relationship with Jesus. She prayed and fasted, in order to find out what was wrong. God told her that it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t her, who had backslidden. The prince over Rwanda was an entirely different enemy and was much stronger than 56

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the demons she knew from Uganda, because the prince over Rwanda could get a whole country to commit corporate suicide. I once travelled as an interpreter for a foreign pastor. In the middle of the night the pastor was awakened by the Holy Spirit and was told to pray for Denmark. The pastor began to pray and on this night he fought a spiritual battle against spirits of cancer, divorce and pornography. Quite impressive since it was his first time visiting Denmark. The pastor had no initial knowledge of Denmark, but explained how these princes had attempted to hinder the planned tour.

to their sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods.

Most Danes would acknowledge this in agreement. Cancer is one of the most common causes of death in Denmark; the divorce rate is amongst the highest in the world; and even though the population is small, the country is known for its sexual immorality, which has made Denmark a leading nation in terms of pornography, legal abortions and the marriage of homosexuals. These things influence, not only Danes, but Danish churches as well - if they are not watchful and resist the enemy. Corinth was a city, well known for its immorality, and this sin was found in the church: (1.Cor. 5:1) It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.

The same thing happened in Shittim in The Old Testament, where the Israelites fell into sin with the Moabites. They made sacrifices to idols (1.Cor. 10:19) and ended up worshipping their demons: (Num. 25:1-2) While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them

Persia as well as Greece had their own princes and demons, as we can see in the book of Daniel 10:13 and Dan. 10:20. The classic example is Daniel’s prayer, where the archangel Michael fought against the prince of the Persian kingdom, before he received the answer to his prayer. Witchcraft In Exod. 7:11 we see how the sorcerers in Egypt tried to imitate the signs that Moses performed before Pharaoh. The prince of Egypt exercised authority through magicians and occultists, not only then, but all the way up to our present age. Some of the rituals have survived for thousands of years, such as the Masonic lodges. Particular members of the lodges carry necklaces, which symbolise the eye of the Egyptian goddess Iris, and similarly there are people who attempt to utilise the so-called power of the pyramid by building imitations of the Egyptian pyramids. In The New Testament it was Samaria, which was known for its witchcraft. When Philip went there in Acts 8, he met a man named Simon, who had bewitched the inhabitants of the district: (Acts 8:10-11) ...all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is the divine power known as the great power.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic.

Witchcraft was also a problem in Ephesus: (Acts 19:18-20) Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practised

Conquering Demons

sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

rope, the hook fell out of the ceiling. He experienced seeing shadows on the walls and a knocking sound on the doors of his apartment. When we went inside, we could hardly breathe because of the demonic activity and we immediately began to cleanse the apartment. We took out all the things that we found, with any relation to the occult and soon there was a whole bunch of occult stuff in a pile, which was to be burnt. My two friends continued to concentrate their efforts on a certain corner of the apartment, where they could sense a strong satanic presence. Apparently, the man had made sacrifices to the spirit of his deceased wife in this corner and had held ceremonies for the spirits of the dead for several days. He was saved and that same night, when we baptised him in the name of Jesus, he was delivered from a demon. A short time later, the man became the leader of a Tamil church in Northern Zealand.

Witchcraft is satan’s best imitation of the power of God’s Spirit. Witchcraft is rebellion and the very sin that caused the downfall of Saul (1.Samuel 15:23 (KJV)). I once met this smart businessman in Peru. My wife and I were invited to his hotel room, but every time we came to see him, he was gone. We decided to come unannounced and knock on his door. It appeared that the man had a female visitor, and when we opened the door, she seemed quite anxious to get her pants back on and quickly paid the man with a bundle of notes. Right beside her, on the table there were different bottles with fluids, herbs and pictures of saints. The man explained that he had just cured this woman of barrenness and claimed to be a Christian. My wife objected and asked to see his Bible. He showed her a book about parapsychology, upon which she called him a liar. The reaction was violent. The man took a voodoo cross and began to pronounce curses over my wife, who - to protect herself from this witchcraft spoke in tongues the best she knew how. Suddenly the lights went out and we sat there in pitch darkness, as we prayed. When the lights came back, it was our turn to pray for the man. However, he did not want to become a Christian and was therefore not delivered. Spirits of the Dead We were once called out to see a Tamil, who was close to giving his life to Jesus. We arrived at the home of this man, who was scared out of his mind. He had tried to hang himself, but when he hung from the

During a campaign in Africa, we were praying for a group of people who had come forward for prayer. There was also a number of children, whom I quickly prayed for so I could concentrate on the adults. The Bishop however, whom I was with, was not as busy as me. He prayed intensely for a girl, who wasn’t much older than six years and suddenly she fell to the ground screaming. I was startled and went over to see what was going on. When I saw her eyes, I realised that it was a demon. She cried out like a foghorn and she didn’t stop for a long time. The Bishop explained to me that it was a spirit of a dead, which her family had invited into her. Many places in Africa the children are named after their grandparents, and if they are dead, the family calls upon their spirits at a ceremony in the hut, so that the spirits can decide on the name of the child. This way the child becomes possessed.

Conquering Demons

The Bible warns us against seeking the spirits of the dead. When people believe that they are speaking with their deceased ones, they are actually speaking with demons, because the dead do not float around here on earth, they are kept under guard in Hades, until the day when they are to be judged before the throne of God (Jude v. 6). For this reason I do not believe in ghosts either. When people experience these kinds of supernatural phenomena, it is a demonic attempt to move their attention away from God.

have experienced how epileptics have been delivered and healed through prayer.

Spirits of Infirmity Infirmities are like sin and death, a consequence of the fall of man. This means that devil is the indirect cause of all sickness. However, it does not mean that there is a demon present every time a person is sick, even though it can be the case. (Matt. 17:14-15) When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.

The word moonstruck is the Greek word seleniazomai, which can be translated as epilepsy, as it was a common belief in ancient days that epileptic seizures were related to the moon. The Greeks knew nothing about epilepsy, but Jesus did. He threatened the demon and the moonstruck boy was healed. I am aware of the fact that epilepsy can be caused by brain diseases, e.g. a haemorrhage or a tumour, or it could occur as the result of heavy blows, e.g. in connection with a traffic accident. Often the cause of epilepsy is unknown. However, my wife and I

When my wife attended Continuation School, she and one of her friends prayed for a girl, who had a fever. The girl was psychologically handicapped, heavily depressed and suffered from epilepsy. When my wife laid hands on her, she began to shake. The sweat dripped from her body, and she ended up throwing up on the floor several times. It was not normal vomit, but slime and blood. They continued to pray for several hours, until the girl recovered. When she woke up the following morning, she was completely changed. She was no longer depressed, but happy and entirely different to talk to. My wife wondered about it, but a number of years later when she witnessed an exorcism, she realised that the girl at the Continuation School had been delivered from a demon. At a summer conference, there was a group of young people, who sat together in a tent, playing the guitar and singing worship songs. Suddenly one of the young men, who was an epileptic, fell to the ground in a seizure. The young people gathered around him and began to call upon the blood of Jesus and the name of Jesus in prayer and song. They did this for about five minutes, until the seizure was over. Consequently, when the young man was to get checked at the hospital, he was convinced that he was healed. I met him a few years later and he confirmed that God had delivered him from epilepsy on that day. When I was training for my hunting licence, I met a guy who had been into Satanism at a time in his life. He refused to hear about Jesus, but took my preaching and witnessing for a whole day quite nicely. In the evening we were going to relax 62

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with some games. Suddenly he began to look up at the ceiling. It was like his body froze and we realised that the man was having an epileptic seizure. When he lay on the floor we agreed to “test the spirit” in order to find out if it was a demon. We knew that the man wasn’t conscious, so with great boldness we commanded any evil spirit to leave him in the name of Jesus. At that very moment he flew up and sat in the corner hissing with his hands like claws. Immediately after this he came back to normal. He looked wild in his face and ran of out the house, while he mumbled something about having to get home.

There are many Danish Christians who have trouble with unclean spirits. The reason why they don’t always manifest is because no one drives them out - or because the person, who is afflicted by unclean spirits hasn’t understood the truth, which can set him or her free. In the early “Toronto-days”, where God’s spirit manifested itself with laughter in the church, I was at a Christian service where many fell to the floor, touched by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the middle of the floor a man lay and groaned. His lower abdomen was moving up and down as he stimulated an orgasm. It was repulsive, but instead of intervening, the leaders looked at each other, embarrassed and agreed that it was probably just the Holy Spirit at work. But the Holy Spirit is holy, not unclean. If this happened today, I would drag the man out of the church and deliver him.

The moonstruck boy was oppressed by demons, and the same was the case with these three people. This is not said to condemn them, but to set them free. There are different kinds of spirits of infirmity. Blind spirits, mute and deaf spirits and evil spirits are related to these spirits of infirmity. I have seen this on crusades in Africa, how people have been delivered from demons and later witnessed about how God has intervened and healed their bodies. Many of these people have been demonised because they’ve paid a visit to the witch-doctor, but when they meet Jesus, they are set free.

After everyone has hooked up to the Internet, everything has become worse. Where before one had to go out to buy, or somehow purchase impurity, one can now, via the computer, bring all this scum into the living-room. You don’t even have to get out of your chair. All you need to do is click on the “mouse” and the unclean spirits come right in. A survey of the most visited sites on the Internet documented the serious nature of the situation. Pornography is the number one site and is visited as much as the three most popular sites taken together.

(Acts 19:11-12) God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

Unclean Spirits I feel at bit strange when it comes to unclean spirits. I can often “smell” them from afar. It is difficult to explain, but if a person is standing behind me, I can feel if there is an unclean spirit present. This can happen in supermarkets, churches, on the street, in fact anywhere there are people.

A Christian couple with problems once came to us for help. We sat and talked together with no apparent progress, until the Holy Spirit reminded me to ask him about his relationship with pornography. Immediately after, the man fell to the floor crying and confessed that he had fallen in sin. 63

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It appeared that the man had hidden pornography all over his house and had tried to convince his wife to go with him to a porn shop, to look for a massage machine. The wife began to cry. He apologised and asked for forgiveness. The impurity had made its way in via the television. I advised them to get rid of the television, but the man believed he could control it now. Then the Holy Spirit showed me that his repentance was only partial and that he felt sorry, only because he had been openly exposed. Therefore I asked him to leave my house. He was furious, but I explained to him that he was jeopardising his marriage because of his impurity. He defiled not only himself, but his relationship to his wife and kids as well. After a few days he repented, went to a pastor and was delivered of an unclean spirit.

changed completely. The television was sold and the video was dumped. Spirits of Murder The genocide in Rwanda is an example of how spirits of murder can wipe out a whole nation. About a million people were butchered with axes and machetes within 100 days. Hutu-men killed their Tutsi-wives and their children. Pastors stood by the street and encouraged people to seek protection in the churches, when the Hutus’ witch hunt on the Tutsis set in. When the churches were filled, they called on the soldiers and the murderers. The pastors were also active during the killings. A Pentecostal pastor chopped off the heads of his two associate pastors, and children down to the age of seven were imprisoned for murder after the liberation. There were even nuns who were found guilty of murder.

I was in a church where a man got up to prophesy. I could immediately feel that the man was on the wrong track. The next day, I told this to the leaders of the church. It appeared that the man was bound by pornography and went out with hookers. The man had just had a “relapse”, but had gone to the pastor’s office after the service, to ask for help and deliverance.

In April 1998 I was on a crusade in Rwanda and saw hundreds of people come to faith. The crusade was arranged by a woman pastor in Kigali, who subsequently purchased a piece of land - with contributions made by Christians in Denmark - for the erection of a new church centre. After the crusade, the pastor recommended that I cleanse myself in order to resist any possible vengeful attacks from the demonic world. In my Danish ignorance I didn’t think much about this and continued my journey. Two nights later, I suddenly woke up with a jolt and understood that something was wrong. The Holy Spirit showed me that my hotel room was being haunted by the demons from the land we had purchased in Kigali. I sat up in my bed and addressed them by name, and instantly it seemed like the whole room came alive. In fear I cried, as I prayed, commanding and quoting Scriptures the best I could. At the

My wife and I were invited out by a couple that we only knew superficially from the Sunday services at church. As we sat and talked, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit: “Ask him how he feels about pornography!” the Holy Spirit said. “OK!” the man replied, but did admit that at a certain time he had had problems with impurity. “Ask him, when was the last time he had been to a porn movie theatre!” said the Holy Spirit, and I was obedient. I asked for a precise answer and the man admitted that he had been to a movie that same day. The wife was shocked. He cried and asked her and the Lord for forgiveness and the relationship between man, wife and children

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same time, I woke up the Danish pastor, with whom I shared the hotel room. On my advice, he thought I was crazy, but nevertheless began to pray in tongues, until the attack was over. When the Bishop from Kenya arrived later on, he asked us, how we had slept. “Not very well!” I answered. “Did you have visitors from Rwanda last night?” he asked. This was a completely natural thing for the Bishop. And of course, the demons would attempt to persecute us, now that we had experienced such a success in Rwanda. Later, when I spoke with the woman pastor from Kigali, she already knew. Apparently, the land had been used as a graveyard, after the genocide in 1994.

(Luke 4:33-35) In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, “Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are- the Holy One of God!” “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.

There are many churches that are bound by demons. The demons sit right up front, occasionally in the leadership. The problem with these demons is that they so often speak the right words - but as you know, the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. These religious spirits mislead churches through people, who neither know the Scriptures nor the power of God. Being a pastor is more than a mere title. It is a calling. Unfortunately, it is not everywhere that this has been acknowledged or taken seriously. In many places the pastor’s job has been reduced to conservation work, where the mission is to ensure that the number of members is kept stable. Many pastors have never cast out demons and are frightened by the thought of it. Other pastors know their calling, but hold themselves back, in fear of their leader’s reaction.

In Rwanda, they have given up on trying to prosecute the murderers from 1994 and are instead committed to capturing the people, who planned the genocide. “If we are to prosecute the murderers amongst us, we would have to imprison the entire Hutu population, because they are all guilty,” say the observers, in their unambiguous judgement. I can mention other similar cases, e.g. Hitler’s genocide of the six million Jews and three million Gypsies in 1940-45, Stalin’s genocide of 30 million poor Russian peasants in the 1930’s, the genocide of an estimated 100 million Indians in South America, during the 500 years’ colonisation era and the Turkish genocide of the 1.5 million Armenians in 1914. Denmark also has blood on its hands. Every year approximately 20000 children are put to death, before they are born. About half a million children have been killed in the name of humanism, since the implementation of the legal abortion law in Denmark in 1974.

A few years ago I was invited to a campaign in a village in western Kenya. In this area there are many churches, but in spite of this, the demons roam freely. Many of the Christians in the district wage their own private “tribal wars”. The churches have disputes amongst one another, and it happens that church members attempt to poison their pastors on account of disputable questions. When we arrived, the local Pentecostal church had cancelled all the services, because they disagreed with the

Religious Spirits In the days of Jesus there were also many religious spirits, who manifested themselves in the house of God:

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pastor on the issue of the laying on of hands. The pastor practised the laying on of hands and the church did not. There I was - in the middle of a bitter strife - and had no idea who I was talking to. I preached and preached and wondered why no one wanted prayer. Finally I was completely desperate and cried out to my Father for help. “God, allow me to break through. Otherwise I’ve come all the way out here to the bush in vain!” The breakthrough came, when I received a word of knowledge for a pastor’s wife. She was delivered from religiousness. For the first time in her life, she stepped forward to share a word at an improvised street service. The spirit of the Lord came over her and when she began to preach, nothing could stop her. People were delivered from evil spirits and healed in open air. I remember it clearly. The pastor’s wife shined, almost like a glowing light and 38 people were saved. I asked the pastor’s wife to prepare herself for the night service. She sought the Lord and the Holy Spirit showed her four people, whom she called forward by name, after my sermon. When we anointed the first woman with oil, she fell to the ground screaming and was delivered. This happened to two out of the four and when I subsequently made an invitation for prayer, people rushed forward to meet Jesus. We went around praying for people and several fell over, screaming and hissing. It was scary. First I didn’t understand what was going on, but then I realised that these people, who were laying on the floor screaming, were the members of the church, who had boycotted the campaign because of their own religiousness. There were about 20-25 people, who were being delivered at the same time. Most of them were young people, who were delivered from religious spirits. That night many people were transformed and got the true life back. Recently, I received a letter from one of the women, who were anointed with oil at one of these services. Now she is serving

Jesus with all of her heart and the church has grown so much that they have started another church. Thank Jesus for that. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were controlled by religious spirits. They were hypocrites and had their own doctrines, which were nothing more than laws of man. They had the form of godliness but denied the power. Finally they killed the son of God, believing through this that they served God. (Mark 7:8) They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men. (1.Tim. 4:1-2) The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with hot iron.

In order to expose these religious spirits we must be able to distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of deception. The ones who receive the whole word of God, in all its power and all its fullness are of the truth. It does not say that they are better than others, but it says that the others are deceived. (1.John 4:6) We are from God and, whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

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6. AN OPEN DOOR But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When I ask myself, when and how the demons found their way into my life, there is an episode that always comes to mind. When I was six years old I walked with my father outside the church. Two of the young people from the church, who were helpers in the junior group, stood outside and smoked. “When I grow up, I want to smoke just like them!” I said. Thereby rebellion was born. Today I’m convinced that this became an entrance for demons into my life. They didn’t come all at once. They came creeping in, without anyone noticing, little by little over a period of years, while I went to church regularly. It all started with a visual impression: Two young people smoking. In my own world of thoughts, they were my rolemodels. The thoughts became rebellion and during my growing up I nourished them. Satan sent one impulse after the other and negative thoughts were laid, like stone after stone in my mind. As the years passed by, they became arguments and strongholds and subsequently the demons were ready to move in. In the Danish Bible, the term arguments in this context, is referred to as a construction of thoughts or a thought-construction. So what is a thought-construction? A house built by many thoughts, well plastered together with negative experiences and prejudice. When the house is ready to be occupied, the owner decides whom he wants to move in. In your unchanged mind satan is the

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contractor. You are the owner, and with your unchanged life it is easy - consciously or unconsciously - to open up for demons. They feel at home in your thought-constructions, until you allow God’s word to pull them down (2.Cor. 10:4-5). Spirit, Soul and Body It happened like in the parable in Matt. 13:25. Satan came and sowed weeds among the wheat, while everyone was sleeping. Sin was allowed in the church because the church was asleep. My rebellion became an open door for the demons. Jacob 1:14 says each one is tempted when he is dragged away and enticed by his own evil desire - and when the evil desire is conceived it produces death. This was exactly what happened when I allowed rebellion to enter in. This does not mean I was possessed - because I was a Christian, born again and filled with God’s Spirit. I was demonised. It can seem like a dispute about words, but this is not the case. The key to understanding my - and many other people’s situation is found in the biblical perspective of man. Man consists not only of body and soul. What makes us different from animals is our spirit, because according to the Bible we consist of spirit, soul and body. (1.Thess. 5:23) May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This doesn’t mean that man is one-third creation, but all three components cause us to be complete humans.

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The Spirit is “our inner being” and is the dimension, which has to do with the spiritual world and people’s relationship with God. The Soul or the mind consists of man’s senses, feelings and will, with which we react in the physical world.

The event of being born again is not a physical, but a spiritual experience, because not even a new-born baby, with its umbilical cord in place, can enter back into the mother’s womb and be born again. Once there was a learned man, named Nicodemus. He lived just like the most highly educated. He used his intellect and explained God’s world from his own world. He desired to see the kingdom of God, but could not comprehend what Jesus was talking about, when he heard that he should be “born again”.

Most people are controlled by the soul or mind. They use their senses and allow themselves to be driven by what they feel, instead of allowing their lives to be directed by the spirit. Think of the body as a ship, with the soul as the rudder and the spirit as the captain. If the captain leaves the rudder, the ship will go in the direction that the wind blows, and sooner or later the ship will hit the shore. However, if the captain controls the rudder with a firm and loving hand, the ship will safely reach its destination. Many Christians hate to hear this. They see this teaching on spirit, soul and body as false teaching. They understand the physical world as the real world and forget that people are eternal creatures. Our earthly body will pass away, but our spirit and soul will live on in a resurrected body forever and ever (1.Cor. 15:44). We nurture not only our bodies with food and clothing, but our soul also needs to be stimulated. This is done by for example going to school or work, being amongst people whom we care about and through leisure activities. The spirit is the third dimension, which is, by definition, nonexistent to the world of science or on the doctor’s table. In order to develop our spirit, we need spiritual food and spiritual challenges from God, who is spirit, and from His word.

(John 3:4-6) “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”

Without the Spirit of God we are spiritually dead because of sin, but when we accept the new life, we come to share in the nature of God. Our inner being comes to life. We become new creations. The old things have passed away and all things have become new (2.Cor. 5:17). (1.John 3:9) No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he is born of God. (1.John 5:18) We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.

Born Again The word of God guides us on our way to this spiritual life.

If you are not a Christian, you do not have the nature of God. Rom. 3:23 says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

(John 3:3) No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

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Life after Death When life on earth is over, eternal life continues, either in Heaven with God and his angels or in Hell with the devil and his demons. If you are born again, your spirit is ready to meet God. If you are not born again, you cannot meet God.

The Unchanged Soul The spirit is eternal, just like the soul is eternal, which is why it is impossible for a person to take his own life. You can kill the body, but you can never kill the soul or the spirit. You don’t solve the problems in your soul and spirit by killing the body. The problems will catch up with you on the other side, and therefore you might as well try to settle things here and now. When we were born again, it was our spirit that was born again. The soul was not changed nor was the body. As Christians we are still subject to sin and mortality and like the rest of the world, we are waiting for God’s glory to be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). The transformation of our minds is a process of sanctification, which occurs throughout the whole Christian walk. The goal of our faith is the salvation of our souls (1.Pet. 1:9). The goal is to be changed, so that we can reflect His glory instead of our old nature, until the day we meet Jesus face to face and are transformed into His likeness.

One of my friends had just started his night-shift as a nurse at a nursing home. One night he observed a lady, who was very disturbed in her sleep. Apparently she had entered the pre-mortal stage; a stage of unconsciousness that often hit old people before they die. After the lady had been unconscious for three days, she began to toss and turn in her bed, something he experienced as a death struggle. He felt compassion for her and sat by her side to pray the Lords prayer. Suddenly she opened her eyes, looked at him with evil eyes and hissed: “Be quiet!” and then her lights went out again. She never gained consciousness again, but died the day after. This woman was in a stage of unconsciousness. Still she reacted apparently consciously, when the nurse spoke to her. He didn’t speak to her soul, but to her spirit. The reaction was dramatic, because she wasn’t ready to meet God. Her facial features changed and her voice seemed demonic. A battle occurred inside her inner being, with the demon that lived in her and had kept her away from a fellowship with God, for her whole life. If this woman had been a Christian, the situation would have been different. When a Christian dies, death is not the end of life. On the contrary, it is a continuation of the life, already lived in the Spirit and an entrance into an eternal life in Heaven with God.

(2.Cor. 3:18) And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, being transformed into his likeness with everincreasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (1.Cor. 15:51-52) I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. (1.John 3:2) Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

(Phil. 1:21) For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

If this weren’t true, the thief on the cross would be a scandal in heaven. He had lived a completely unchanged, non-

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Christian life, until the day he hung on the cross and realised that he was a sinner in need of God’s grace. Jesus assured him that they would be together in paradise from that day on. He had not heard one sermon on sanctification and the transformation of the mind, but when the thief opened up his eyes in heaven, he no longer had the nature of a thief. When the thief on the cross breathed out his last breath, his soul was transformed in an instant.

An Important Definition When a person has demons in the mind, we are dealing with what I would call a demonisation. If they are found in the body, we are dealing with oppression. After this the aim of a demon is to possess the rest of the person (Acts 10:38). It is not until the demon has settled in the spirit, soul and body at one time that we can speak of a complete possession. So now the definition is settled. If these terms get mixed up, which unfortunately occurs frequently in churches, the result is confusing and incomprehensible. Especially for the one who is oppressed by demons, or demonised. If you are born again in your spirit, your spirit cannot be possessed. You can only become possessed in case you fall so deeply into sin that you willingly leave Jesus and give satan permission to take over your life. The man from the tombs was possessed, not just by one demon, but by a whole legion:

The Battle over the Soul When Jesus died on the cross and rose again Easter morning, He won a spiritual victory over the devil. After this the battle has been between satan and the physical world. He is the prince of this world (John 12:31), i.e. the prince of the physical world, who is also referred to as the ways (spirit) of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air (Eph. 2:2). The human soul is the controlling factor by which we confront and react in this world, and therefore it is completely natural that the enemy would attempt to attack us in this area. If your mind is subject to the word of God, he will not have much success, because you will be able to withstand any attack in Jesus’ name. If the word of God has not come in, you will experience one attack after another. Just like angels are God’s messengers, demons are satan’s messengers. They find their way to the soul via the senses, in the same way as they find their way to the body via the senses. If you do not allow Jesus to change your soul here on earth, you create a place for demonic influence, e.g. if you are living in conscious sin. This was what happened in my case. I was delivered from nine demons, but “my” demons were not in my spirit, they were in my mind. 77

(Mark 5:1-9) They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!” Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”

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To claim that a Christian can be possessed is not Scriptural. But one shouldn’t fall into the other extreme either, of denying the influence of the demons, if a person is demonised, oppressed or possessed. If you see the problem, it is important that you confront it with wisdom and express yourself clearly, so that you are not misunderstood.

Perhaps you are experiencing “something”, which is blocking or hindering you in receiving from God. Perhaps it’s even hindering you from going to powerful services or receiving the gift of tongues, even though you have longed for it and have prayed to God many times to grant you this gift. If you can recognise this, it may be that you need to be delivered, not necessarily with violent manifestations, as I experienced, but through an acknowledgement of the truth, which is God’s word. In the next chapter I will show how you can participate in pushing on with this process through the transformation of your mind resulting in God’s deliverance of you.

After a service in a Free Church I spoke with the leader of the church, who apologised for the behaviour of a person during the sermon. “It doesn’t matter, the man is filled with evil spirits!” I answered, without making a big deal out of it. I was not implying that this individual was possessed, but that the person was demonised. Unfortunately my statement was misused and caused a lot of misunderstandings, and afterwards I painfully regretted that I hadn’t kept quiet. Talking about demons in church is like sticking your head into a beehive, and therefore I think many choose to keep quiet. However, this does not decrease the nature of the problem, for there are many demons in Christian congregations just waiting to be cast out. Perhaps you are one of the people, waiting to be set free. Perhaps you have battled with the same sins for years like I did, without getting an inch further in your Christian walk. Do not think that this is the will of God. God has not called you to be defeated, but to conquer. Make a decision to change things and seek Him for help, either alone or in church. The demons are not the ones responsible for your sin. As a person you must stand accountable before God with your own life. You must rule over sin (Gen. 4:7), and a suspicion about any demonic activity must never become an excuse for a sinful lifestyle.

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7. THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE MIND Without the transformation of the mind, we are puppets in the hands of the entire army of Hell. The unchanged mind of man is the foundational rock of satan’s strongholds. Therefore our minds must be transformed. We must hinder satan from building, which is what happens when our minds are renewed by the word of God. (Rom. 12:2) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.

The word transform in the original text is the Greek word methamorpho. It means to undergo a complete change, like the larva that turns into a butterfly, when it comes out of its pupa. The larva hasn’t just grown wings, it’s a whole new creation, and ready to live a completely new life, where it flies instead of crawls. It’s the same with our Christian walk: It is not until our minds are transformed, that we can understand God’s will, his good, pleasing and perfect will - for a person in the soul must not expect to receive the things of God (1.Cor. 2:14). In this case, being in the soul means being controlled by the unchanged mind. Without the transformation of the mind, we are puppets in the hands of the entire army of Hell. It is not good enough with our old minds. It is not until we think and act according to the word of God, that we can expect to receive God’s good gifts.

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A Fortified City The unchanged mind is like a fortified city, which can, however, be taken. With this illustration it may be easier to understand the transformation process that occurs, when the Word does its work within us. Archaeological excavations have shown that the larger cities of Israel, at the time when the Bible was written, were constructed according to a specific pattern – a high tower in the middle and a fortified wall surrounding. Examples of this are found in Judges 9:45-51, concerning the cities of Shechem and Thebez. When an enemy had taken the wall and besieged the city, there was still the tower in the middle, where all the inhabitants could seek refuge. The tower was almost impossible to take and it was here the aggressors met their final opposition. The battle wasn’t over until the tower was conquered. The same battle occurs after the new birth, when God bombards your wall and your tower with His word in order to transform your mind. The birth is God’s sovereign work, which is carried out in a short time, when you bend your knees and ask Jesus to be your personal Lord and Savior (Rom. 10: 9-10). However, the transformation is your own responsibility. If you do not give the Word, as it is revealed in the Bible, a place in your heart, it is impossible for Him to change your life. The battle is in our minds and stands between the old life before Jesus and the new life in Jesus. When the Word Gets In The strongholds are a part of your old life, which you haven’t let go of yet. If they are not broken down by the Word, the

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devil and all his demons get a foothold, even though you are born again.

Maybe you’ll find both ghosts and bats in the tower – but they are not worth writing home about or showing off as a tourist attraction. If these things have been around for a long time, they may have become a part of your personality, in which case you need Jesus to set you free in this area.

(Prov. 21:22) A wise man attacks the city of the mighty and pulls down the strongholds in which they trust.

Instead of trusting the stronghold, we should put our trust in the wise man. This wise man is Jesus. When you give Him your heart, he charges the wall. It is not until this he takes the tower, in which his enemy stands. This process did not happen automatically in my case. When I was saved at 16 years of age, Jesus charged my old life, but the process stopped right there the first time around. The same thing happens to many Christians. They get wonderfully saved, but don’t make room for the power of God’s transforming word. They look at their Christian friends and imitate them, instead of reflecting themselves in the word of God. For this reason they live as spiritual babies. The only food they get is the fast-food served on Sunday mornings and at cell group gatherings. They never learn how to eat for themselves and end up getting malnutrition, because they don’t get the food appropriate to the stage at which they are. It was not until I got to Bible school that the word of God started doing its work in me. It was there Jesus began his onslaught in the innermost corners of my mind. I had no idea what was hidden in the stronghold and was very shocked when I found that there were demons, which had hindered the spiritual growth in my life for all those years. It was not until I lay on the floor and heard my own terrible screams, that I realised that I had been deceived. If you have been at the same stage for many years or if you experience one defeat after another, then make room for the Word. Allow yourself to be transformed and let Jesus charge your tower.

Examples of Thought-Constructions I once met a girl who had been a victim of incest. “My name is Sofie and I’m an incest victim!” she said – and this was her way of presenting herself, every time she met a man. She hated men, but in contrast to other incest victims, I have known, she didn’t hide her past, but willingly spoke of it in details. It was completely morbid, she just couldn’t help herself. She had to let all men know about what she had been through, because the crime, which had been committed towards her body, had become a part of her identity. About ten years ago my wife and I came into contact with a woman who suffered from psoriasis. She was open to the gospel and wanted to come to church with us, but usually she was hindered from coming along because of her illness. We came to her home and told her about how Jesus could heal her body. We asked her if we could pray for her healing, but she didn’t feel ready for that. Her whole physical life was framed around her illness. She could not cope with the thought of a life without disablement pension and wasn’t happy about giving up her annual health-trip to the Dead Sea in Israel either. For this reason she turned us away, she didn’t have the courage to take the step and allow Jesus to charge her wall and her tower. It is very different how people receive the Word. Conquering the tower can be a tough challenge, but if you

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want to experience God’s blessing - “the good, pleasing and perfect” - it is the only way ahead. Raise the white flag and allow Jesus to come into your heart of hearts. Don’t be afraid of the consequences, but understand that He, who has called you, has power and love enough to change that which is hard and most painful.

God’s word penetrates and divides. In the same way as it divided darkness from light in the beginning, God’s word will expose the grey areas of your life and the boundaries, which perhaps have been erased a bit. The Word sorts out the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Attitudes that do not conform with the word of God, are pulled down and replaced with God’s thoughts in line with His word. We attack the devil with the sword of the Word, like Jesus attacked satan with the Word, when he was tempted in the desert in Luke 4,3. Since Jesus, God’s son used the word of God as the authority, then we should also do so. To be a Christian is to be a follower of Christ. In this process we force the mind to be obedient to the word of God.

A New Safeguard When Jesus takes the tower, it is no longer your unchanged mind that controls your actions. Jesus lives in the mind, which is the control center of the will, the reason and the emotional life. When you choose to “allow yourself to change” and surrender to the Word, the battle begins, between the spirit of God and the spirit of the world – and the battle occurs in the center of your mind. The enemy will always attempt to bombard you with things from your past life. But now you have been given a new safeguard: (Prov. 18:10) The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

When the attacks come, then beat them off with the word of God. (2.Cor. 10:4-5) The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (Heb. 4:12) For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Joints and marrow are a very tangled matter, just like it is humanly very difficult to distinguish between spirit and soul.

(Phil. 4:8) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.

With Jesus and His word in the control tower a gradual process of change occurs, which is also referred to as sanctification. It is not a process that occurs over night or by a quick laying on of hands, it continues for the rest of your life on earth. Further Reflections The Bible is full of examples of men, who served God, but still needed to be changed in different areas of their soul: 1.

Arrogance, Simon Peter: (Mark 14:29) Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”

Inferiority, Gideon:

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(Judg. 6:15) Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

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(1.Sam. 9:21) Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?

Pride, Moses: (Acts 7:22-25) Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

2. The wisdom that Moses had acquired at Pharaoh’s court caused him to commit murder (v. 24). 4.

These men of God dealt with their thought-constructions and strongholds. Simon Peter cried bitterly, because he betrayed Jesus, but shortly after he preached and brought several thousand people into the kingdom of God. The Spirit of God arrayed himself in Gideon and led the people to victory. Moses accepted God’s discipline as a shepherd in the desert and finally led the people of Israel out of Egypt. David repented and the fruit of this was his son Solomon, who built the temple of God. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret (2.Cor. 7:10). However, in the following examples we see how thought-constructions, which are not dealt with can lead to the downfall of God’s servants:

Fear, Jeroboam: (1.Kings 12:26-27) Jeroboam thought to himself. “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”

Impurity, David: (2.Sam. 11:2-4) One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Elaim and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home.

Inferiority, Saul:

In the King James version it says, Jeroboam said in his heart. The word heart is the Hebrew word leb, which means the mind, will or soul. 3.

Greed, Judas: (John 12:4-6) But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a years wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. (Matt. 26:15) What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you? So they counted out for him thirty silver coins.

The consequence of sin is death. Saul lost his kingdom because of idle worship, lies and murder. Because of fear Jeroboam ended as dog food, and Judas finally hanged himself. It says that satan entered Judas. He did not deal with his demons, so the demons finally dealt with him.

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A Wall of Protection Instead of the old strongholds God desires to build a new wall, a new standard into your life. He will make you strong, so that you no longer have to be victimized by the devil’s schemes:

Many men battle with impurity. The word of God admonishes us to live in purity. Therefore any unclean thought should be confessed as sin before the Lord and your spouse if any. Not until then is it possible to beat off the attack in the name of Jesus. Many women are victims of fear. Fear has many faces and is able to manifest itself physically in the form of sickness or different kinds of phobias. If this is your problem, then confess it as sin. Jesus came to free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death (Heb. 2:15). Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. After this you have His word that the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6-7).

(Prov. 25:28) Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls (KJV). (Prov. 24:30-31) I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgement; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. (Is. 5:5) Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away it’s hedge and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. (Ecclesiastes 10:8) He who digs a pit will fall into it, and whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a serpent (KJV).

When we allow the Word to change our minds, the Word becomes like a wall of protection around our lives. Without the Word, we will be trampled down. The Word protects us against intruders, in this case the snake, i.e. satan’s “bite”. Take Captive any Thought The King James Bible says in Prov. 23:7: as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. The Hebrew word for heart is in this case nephes, which means the mind with all its passions and feelings. I know from my own life, how an apparently “innocent” thought can become an opportunity for the flesh and thereby lead to one’s downfall. I know my mind and understand how weak I am. Therefore, by God’s help I always catch the thought in the making, before it gets a foothold and I bind it according to the word of God. Unless I control my mind, I know it can have fatal consequences for my life. 89

After a number of years with a lot of sickness in our family we attended a service, where a pastor saw a vision of our “wall”. The wall had been broken down, but now God desired to rebuild it and protect us from any kind of sickness. We took God by his word and thanked him every day for this wall. In the subsequent years we have experienced that the devil has not been able to get to us in this area. We have held on to the promises and every time a little cold came sneaking up on us, we’ve laid stone upon stone on the wall in our prayers and commanded satan to lose his grip. It is our experience that it works. Our children are practically never sick. Small colds stay small and never get the chance to develop, and even though we have battles, we choose to believe in God’s good promises concerning health for our family in all situations every day. I have suffered from chronic sinusitis and tonsillitis for many years and have taken so many penicillin treatments that the doctor finally advised me not to leave the country, 90

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because my antibodies had been severely broken down. Today I am healed and I haven’t needed penicillin since 1994. All glory to Jesus for that. God’s word is everlasting and his compassion has no end. His thoughts are far higher than our thoughts. Neither powers nor principalities can separate us from His love. The greatest limitation we are challenged with, is our unchanged mind. Peace of Mind Even though you may be going through a spiritual battle between your old self, your new self and satan’s demons, because of the blood of Jesus and his victory, you can find peace of mind – like a child, laying on its mother’s breast. (Psalm 131:2) But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

A baby that is still breastfeeding always thinks it’s going to have food, when it lies on its mother. It is born with a so-called “search reflex” and is subject to its instinct. It is not until the child is weaned from this that it is able to truly rest by its mother’s breast. The same principle applies to us. When we think that we are free as we can be, to do what ever we please, we are in fact strictly controlled by our unchanged minds, with all their emotions, opinions and demons if any. It is not until the soul is “calmed and quieted like a weaned child with his mother” (KJV), that we can shut off the demands, which belong to the old life and find our way to that peace, which is hidden in the promises of God’s word.

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The man from the street ended up on the street again and for him it went just as described in 2. Pet. 2:22:

8. BURN THE BRIDGES (Luke 12:47) That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. When Jesus comes in and transforms your mind, it is your job to keep away the enemy. You do this by burning all the bridges behind you. No one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. When you repent you must lay off the old self and put on the new one. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to break off all contact with your former circle, however, sometimes, especially with former addicts, this is necessary. With Jesus as Lord of your mind you get a new consciousness, but there is always the danger of having it smudged. If you continue with former vices after your repentance and possibly deliverance, you will lose your ability to distinguish between right and wrong. This is often seen in Denmark and other countries for that matter, where the church is so secularised in many places that there is no major difference between the life inside and the life outside the church. One of my friends from the street was delivered from alcohol, cigarettes and more. He went to Bible school for a number of months and returned as a spiritual baby to the church residence, where he was to stay for the Easter holiday. A dear brother, who also lived there, kept him company. This brother smoked and after a short while the newly saved smoked together with him. The cigarettes became a bridge to his old lifestyle. A few days later we had to throw him back on the street, because he had behaved aggressively after drinking.

(2.Pet. 2:22) “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

He was caught by his old vices, because of a brother – even though the Word very accurately warns against this situation: That our freedom should not be an opportunity for the flesh and a stumbling block to the weak (1.Cor. 8:9). Together with two ex-alcoholics my wife and I went to the opening of a new Christian café. We did not know the churches that stood behind the event, but thought that it was a great initiative, until we found out that the opening was being celebrated with the free serving of beer and wine for everyone. We did not drink any alcohol ourselves, which put a stop to our friends’ consumption. This environment was poison to their souls and became a bridge back to the world, from which they had been saved and turned their backs on. We walked out of the place quickly. Before we left, we had a long conversation with a backslidden Christian. He had had quite a bit to drink and sat there dangling on his chair. This brother felt extremely provoked by my conduct. He was almost angry with me because I didn’t want to condone his sin by drinking a beer with him. When we know what is right and don’t do it, we make ourselves guilty of sin and come under condemnation. (Jam. 4:17) Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

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In my eyes alcohol is one of the greatest curses in the churches today. I remember how as a young man I participated in the promotion of alcohol amongst the churches’ youth, by a misunderstood tolerance, because we felt that our parents’ views on the issue of alcohol were fanatic. The first time I came to Rwanda there were empty Carlsberg beer cans laying around everywhere. With a great sense of patriotism, I then told how this was a part of Denmark and that it was “our beer”, until God spoke and told me to repent of my statement. “Our beer” is our curse!” he said, and it doesn’t make things better that we export our curse to a poor country. The Danes’ consumption of beer is certainly not anything to be proud of. Many of my Christian friends have lost the faith, because of alcohol and personally I have decided never again to drink alcohol. Not even a glass of red wine with a red steak. I will not be a part of something that ruins people’s lives.

Our church was once contacted by the local authorities, who asked us to help a young female rocker whose life had been threatened. She was on every drug that could be abused and had had the most terrible upbringing you could imagine. She was asked if she wanted to go to Africa for six months, as a volunteer, and was told that the purpose of the stay was that she would become a Christian. Two days before the departure to Uganda, she disappeared without a trace and I was on the streets looking for her. On the day of her departure she was affected by drugs. We got her put on the plane and together with some people from the church, she ended up in Africa. After a few days, during a conference, she was delivered from several demons. It was a very violent deliverance and the subsequent transformation was just as dramatic. When I later came to Uganda, I couldn’t recognise her at all, she simply radiated the love of God. However, there were some things that she didn’t want to give up. She continued to flirt and secretly started to smoke. Slowly but undoubtedly everything went downhill. When she came home, she just had to see a friend. Already the first night they slept together and the following night she slept with someone else. We believed it would be best to give her a new, Danish circle and we sent her on holiday to West Jutland. The plan was that she was to be enrolled at a Bible school, but after a couple of days she ran off with a fisherman and we didn’t hear from her for a long time. Six months later she suddenly showed up at a home service in Hillerød. She now lived with a pusher in Copenhagen and “everything went fine”, she said. The next time we met her she looked terrible. She had been beaten up with candlestick and had slept in a bush at the train station. We gave her a hug and reminded her that Jesus loved her and that it wasn’t too late. But she didn’t even want to go

Settle the Score with Sin It is interesting to see in countries with revival, how you don’t have to tell new Christians how they’re supposed to live. They settle the score with sin and repent of their bad habits in the very instant they receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and get saved. When this happens, we often see how God releases them from the things that belong to the old life. Deliverance occurs through repentance, for the power is found in the grace, which releases us from the law of sin and death. I have seen many newly saved lose their faith, because they haven’t settled the score with the sin in their lives. I have noticed, with great grief, how many Danes who have been delivered from evil spirits, haven’t burnt the bridges behind them and therefore end up in a condition worse than the one they came from.

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home with us. The last thing we heard was that she had stolen her father’s pension to get money for drugs. Now she lives somewhere in Copenhagen and probably won’t have too many years ahead of her, if she continues on this track.

A New Confession After a deliverance you have to establish something new to replace the thought-construction, which is broken down. I also experienced feeling completely empty inside, every time a demon left my mind. And I filled my mind with the word of God, to such an extent that some believe I am brainwashed. But so what, I would rather be brainwashed by God’s word than the spirit of the world. When Jesus had delivered a man from evil spirits, he ordered him to go home to his family and tell them how much the Lord had done for him (Mark 5:19). Jesus knew that the man needed a new life of discipline, testimony, confession and ministry. His home area, Decapolis, was so shaken that the way was opened to Jesus when he returned shortly after. Because of the possessed man’s testimony, a great multitude of people gathered around Jesus; Jairus’ daughter was raised from the dead; the woman who was subject to bleeding was healed; and 4000 people were fed with just a few pieces of bread and fish. If you have been delivered you must make sure that no one or nothing steals your newly found freedom. You must change your lifestyle and read the Word, as you keep away from evil and do good. It is important to pray in tongues a lot, because the language of the spirit strengthens your inner being. You must daily walk in repentance, in close fellowship with God through the Word and daily prayers.

This girl did not get her past settled and finally found that the past caught up with her. Through her unchanged mind, she gave the devil a foothold. She got the demons back and each demon brought with them seven other demons, much worse than themselves. (Matt. 12:43-45) When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation. (2.Pet. 2:20) If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. (Heb. 10:26-29) If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sin is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood covenant that sanctified, and who has insulted the spirit of grace?

I know a homosexual, who is an instructor in sadomasochism. He has been a Christian, but has never been completely free. I myself was involved in cleaning his house. I removed all kinds of impurities and requested him to burn all his bridges, which he did, materially speaking. He replaced 98

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everything and moved into a tent. The only thing he brought with him from his former residence was his personal papers. After this he went to a Bible school and then the battle seriously began raging in his mind. He simply could not stand being at the school. He reacted very violently, but instead of getting help, he ran away. He stopped going to the Bible school, but continued to come to church. He was tormented by demons and satan came to his bed at night and claimed his soul. He was prayed for in church and the demons manifested, without being cast out, however. I was not present at this particular service, but the Lord gave me a word for the man. I saw how the back door to his old life continued to be open, because he smoked. In spite of his many spiritual experiences he was not willing to get rid of the cigarettes. He chose to live with his demons and two months later he was back in the world.

women my way. In the middle of all this I was taken to a hospital. I was critically ill with meningitis and lost ten kilos during a week, while my Christian friends in Denmark prayed for my life. Later the demons attempted to take my wife’s life. She was in risk of dying during the birth of our first child. In a state of half unconsciousness she saw a dark figure standing in the door waiting and after coming home she had a strong relapse. She was taken to the hospital with a haemorrhaging abdomen and lost so much blood at one time that she lost consciousness. The Christian doctor that was on duty that night said that it was a miracle that she didn’t die. Satan’s next target was our daughter. At eight months of age, Oline got her first fever cramps and the attacks repeated every time she got a fever. She didn’t just cramp for two to three minutes, but for several hours. The cramps didn’t stop by themselves, only with large doses of nerve stabilising remedy. When she was taken to the hospital during our stay at the high school in Mariager, it was satan’s attempt to physically remove us from the influence of the Word, because he truly feared that this would be of decisive importance for my life. However, satan is a liar: All his evil plans failed and I came through the crisis strengthened. I believe he has grieved over this many times thereafter, because the result of all his efforts was that God finally got his way and I got my freedom, as I continued my stay at the Bible school in Copenhagen. After my deliverance the sun shines constantly over my family. Blessings are poured upon us and if satan should try to bother me again, he’ll meet a closed door. There is a wall of protection around my life, as long as I live after God’s word. He no longer has the right to touch me. As I live in a process of daily repentance in prayer and Bible reading, there is nothing in my life, which belongs to him.

No Peaceful Co-existence The problem is that you cannot just “live” with your demons. There will never be any peaceful co-existence – nor will there be any cold war, for that matter. Demons are satan’s messengers and they hate you like poison. They have only one goal: To annihilate you and get you into the lake of fire. If I had not been delivered from demons, I probably would have ended up as a backslider with a needle in my arm – because old “Niller” had a destructive character and several of my friends from back then are dead today. Today I can see how the demons, through all these years have tried to hinder me from stepping in to my ministry, just like they tried to take my life and destroy my family. When I met my wife all hell broke loose. Through different circumstances, the demons attempted to destroy our relationship and when I went to Israel during our engagement to settle my former relationship, they tried to tempt me by sending other 99

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Watch the Grey Areas On the other hand, I do not have the right to trespass on his property, unless I come with a specific agenda, as an ambassador of God’s kingdom.

They move around on the devil’s territory, or in no-man’s land, between the church and the world, where they really have no mission and end up beaten and bruised in the middle of the road.

During my Bible school period I had my own firm. I imported jewelry and handicraft products from South America and sold them in different places, e.g. at the Roskilde Festival, where I had my own stand. The first year I was there it went very well. I sold plenty and also got a chance to witness to many people. My second year there was quite a different story. At this time I had been delivered from demons and I experienced a massive attack on my mind. God showed me that I no longer had any business at the Roskilde Festival. I wound up my shop and got rid of all my jewellery, with a large financial loss, but saved my life.

David and Jonathan In the church we name our children after Saul’s son, Jonathan, because we believe that he was a role model, an exemplary man of God. However, Jonathan had a tragic ending and died together with his father and his brothers in a battle, which he knew they had lost beforehand. Jonathan did not choose sides. He moved around between Saul’s house and David’s house, while he tried to stay neutral. The house of Saul is a picture of the apostate and demonic, who tries to kill God’s anointed one. The house of David is a spiritual house. He was a man after God’s heart (Acts 13:22). Jonathan looks like someone we could call “a good Christian”. He was a good example, helpful and loving, and considerate, which we for example see in 1. Sam. 19:4-5, where Jonathan intercedes for David in Saul’s house. Jonathan loved David and he was called to rule together with David.

I have known Christians, who have gone to the Roskilde Festival to witness about Jesus, and I have great respect for this. However, I didn’t come to preach. I had another mission namely to sell. I was not like the other festival participators – but I was not with the Christians on their mission either. I moved around between two worlds, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of satan. These two kingdoms are at constant war with one another. I stood between the battling troops and almost got hit, because I tried to stay neutral. You have to be sure that it is Jesus who has sent you, if you go into the enemy’s camp. The devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1.Pet. 5:8). We should not fear him, but nor should we challenge him. The Bible says, we should resist him, firm in faith. There are many Christians, who lose their faith, because they aren’t aware of the spiritual battle, which occurs around them. 101

(1.Sam. 23:17) “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you [Hebrew: misneh, the next highest rank]. Even my father Saul knows this.”

Jonathan found himself in a grey area and even though he knew the truth, he did not give up his relationship to his father. He did not burn the bridges behind him. He tried to use his good will, instead of dealing with his sin and trusting God to take care of his future. He chose Saul, which cost him his life.

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Jonathan was so deceived that he didn’t even flee from his father, when his father tried to kill David.

even though that solution may be the most convenient. Do not be afraid of losing status and security, but follow God’s call. He has called you to bear good and lasting fruit. You can only do this if you settle the score with sin and do not compromise.

(1.Sam. 20:33) But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill him.

I have often wondered why Jonathan lived this double life. Saul was indeed a murderer, filled with jealousy and hatred towards David, who was Jonathan’s best friend. Perhaps it was for the sake of convenience. Saul was king, Jonathan’s flesh and blood. The family was his security and the palace was his status, where Jonathan could live as a prince with all the privileges that the palace had. Jonathan didn’t burn the bridges behind him and therefore he never succeeded in his calling – namely to be second to David, who became king after Saul’s death. He compromised with the conviction of his heart and chose the world, instead of life with God’s servant David, as a refugee in the cave of Adullam. Jonathan chose wrongly and for this he died. He ended up with his head chopped off, hanging on the wall of the idle Beth Shan, as a spectacle to all who passed by (1. Sam. 31:2 + 8-12). The fruit of Jonathan’s life was Mephibosheth, a crippled child. The child fell out of the hands of the servants, as they fled from David, the new king of Jerusalem, after Saul’s death. If Jonathan had made the right choice, it would never have been necessary to escape, and the child would not have been crippled, but would have lived amongst the king’s sons in Jerusalem. The fruit of David’s life was Solomon, who built the temple of God and ruled with great wisdom, in peace and prosperity for his people. The choices we make are significant for the future. The wages of sin are death. This involves both our personal life as well as the church. You cannot just turn a blind eye to sin and stay “neutral”, 103

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9. DEMONS IN THE CHURCH My friend stood and prayed, when he heard a groaning sound behind him. He turned around and saw a demon physically standing in the middle of the church hall. He commanded it to get out, but it would not leave. Once there was a church that was growing and prospering. The church grew, both in size and power and the word got out around the country that “it was a good place to be”. People started commuting to church and many from outside moved in. Not just ordinary members, but also recognised leaders from other churches. They were welcomed with open arms and were soon given positions in the leadership. Several came from divided congregations, but even though they came with a spirit of division, they were still permitted to be part of the work. Everything started off well, but after a while it went down hill. Things changed. The air got thick with rumours and brothers and sisters started opposing each other, while the newly saved disappeared into the dark. It was a very confusing time. No one could see through what really happened. I’m not really into the intrinsic nature of church leadership, but the account above is not a fairy tail. It is a real life example. We were three young men, who had been there from the tender beginning of the church. We prayed and cried out to God, to show us what was wrong. Independently, we all received a revelation, about how a wrong spirit had been let into the church, like the account in the book of Nehemiah, where Tobiah was given a room in the temple. My friend stood and prayed, when he heard a groaning sound behind him. He turned around and saw a demon physically

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standing in the middle of the church hall. He commanded it to get out, but it would not leave. Because of sin in the leadership of the church, the demon believed it had a right to stay. We realised that the situation in the church was one big demonic deception. Satan had managed to deceive the members of the church by gossip and criticism and we had been fighting one another, rather than the demons. The struggle had become personal instead of spiritual and for this very reason, the church became disabled as a part of satan’s strategy. Know your enemy. He knows you and will attempt to destroy you and your church, in any way he can. If he gets to you, he can affect your brothers and sisters in the church, through your defeat. If he hits the church, there is a good chance he’ll reach you too. Love, forgiveness and unity are necessary in order to avoid becoming victims of deception (2.Kor. 2:11). How do we discover what the devil has in mind? Through the Word. There is nothing new under the sun. The Bible has the answer to everything. Many Christians do not understand what hits them and all too many wake up too late – if they wake up at all. You live under the password “the Lord gave and the Lord took away” and forget that the people of God are called to live in growth and blessings, just like the first church in the Bible (Acts 2:44-47). If someone disturbs, humiliates, ridicules or hinders the church’s activity, you can be sure that it is the devil. You don’t need the gift of discerning spirits to see through that. Our churches shouldn’t shrink, they should grow. Jesus wants all to be saved. People, who say quality rather than quantity, have already fallen for their own judgement. In a misconceived appointment of themselves as quality Christians, they have set aside the power of God’s word. Bad excuses 106

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don’t work. God’s church, as we find it in the New Testament, is the only hope for your country today.

supported the church, maybe not visibly, but at least in “the spirit”. He presents himself as the one who has always been there and has always known that the church was chosen and on the right track, however, it is not his true colours. The truth is that Tobiah has gossiped and opposed the church in every way. He has the form of godliness but denies the power. Now all of a sudden he is among the people of God and attempts to destroy the work from the inside. When you are at work with the spear in your hand, you don’t expect the attack to come from behind. Therefore Tobiah has time to divide the church and chase away the ministries, before the leadership even gets a chance to react.

The Enemy’s Strategy In the book of Nehemiah we read how Nehemiah got his vision of building the walls of Jerusalem. In the same way, we need to have our vision in God’s church. Not just a thought or a feeling, but a faith conviction, which is so strong that no opposition can contradict it. The enemy tried to stop Nehemiah in every way when he got his vision and put it into action. But Nehemiah stood firm. He had decided to serve and fear the God who had called him, even though the opposition against him was immense. The book of Nehemiah is a tangible teaching on satan’s strategy: 1. The enemy comes with scorn and mockery and ridicules Nehemiah (Neh. 4:2-19). 2. False charges are made and a conspiracy is formed against him (Neh. 4:1-8). 3. New tactics. The enemy invites Nehemiah to a meeting, after which he sends him libels to discourage him (Neh. 6:1-13). 4. Everything seems peaceful when the enemy sneaks in the form of Tobiah. He aligns himself with the priest Eliashib (Neh. 13:4) and attempts to get Nehemiah to do something illegal (Neh. 6:10). 5. When Tobiah moves into the temple, the ministries are chased away (Neh. 13:1-10). When Tobiah did not succeed in attacking head-on, he sets himself on the back row, as the humble servant of God, who always 107

Guard the Vision If we are to build a church, we can learn from the examples in the book of Ezra. Ezra got together with the people, who had been in exile. God gave him a vision about building God’s temple and he did not give up on the vision that God had given him. He only shared it with his own people, i.e. the ones who had been in exile, like himself. (Ezra 3:2) Then Jeshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priest and Zarubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the alter of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the law of Moses the man of God.

As the work gradually proceeded, people started coming from the outside. The enemies wanted to join in, but Ezra turned them away. He knew his enemies and understood that they would try to stop him: (Ezra 4:1-2) When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel,

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they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God.

When the pastor tried to stop him they both totally freaked out, both verbally and physically. Before this incident, one of the church members had prayed God to show her who the enemy of the church was. God had given her two names, after which she left town to run another errand. When she returned and heard about the two men’s assault, she cried out and went to get her notebook. “Show me our enemy!” it said, and underneath were the names of the two men.

When Ezra wasn’t persuaded, the enemy changed its tactics and tried to insinuate itself into the working fellowship, with religious, mendacious comments like, “like you, we seek your God”. But Ezra was not convinced. God had given Ezra the vision and it was Ezra’s task to see it through. Therefore he built alone: (Ezra 4:3) But Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”

When the people of God get down to it and start building, there will always be people from the outside offering their help. In and of itself there is nothing wrong with that, but if you are a church leader, then do not give them any leadership responsibility. God’s people need visionary leadership, who stand firm. Do not compromise your call, but be conscious of the enemy’s strategy, so that he doesn’t succeed in destroying God’s work. The Message is Topical During a campaign in Africa I shared this message from the book of Nehemiah and explained how I had seen a church get split up in bits and pieces. The word was like a sword that just cut through. Several started crying when realising that all of a sudden the enemy could be sitting on the back row. A few days later a pastor from another church came to pick up his microphone, which he had forgotten after a joint crusade. The microphone was packed away with the church’s sound system, and the pastor’s partner had, without permission gone into the church venue.

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If you have a leadership responsibility, it is your job to expose the enemy. Just like this leader got an answer, God will reveal himself to you. He who seeks wisdom, to him it will be given generously and without fault (Jam. 1:5). Believers can unconsciously yield to the devil and be used by demons. But this does not mean that they are not saved. Perhaps they just need some teaching. You don’t have to go out and proclaim it publicly or take hold of the person concerned. To begin with, it is best to pray and command the unclean spirit, which is at work, to stop in the name of Jesus. On a mission trip to the Ukraine, God spoke to me about giving the same teaching as the one I had given in Africa. I spoke at a leadership meeting, and because we were pressed for time, I kept going for two and a half hours, continuously, without a break. I knew that it was important and I was very content, when the meeting was over. I had been obedient. Six months later, I met the Ukrainian pastor: “Christian” he said, “I didn’t really believe your teaching, when you said that the primary enemy, in times of prosperity and revival, would come from within. I didn’t believe that this would happen to us, but in fact, the attack started already when we drove you to the airport. Two elders, who had been critical for 110

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a long period of time, ganged up and started to sow a negative seed in the church. The gossip increased and when my wife and I subsequently went away on a trip, the elders managed to get the administers of the church on their side. When we came home, the whole church was stirred up. We threw out the two elders of the church and effectively stopped the division, but it almost went wrong.

outside. Expel the wicked man from among you (put away from yourselves that wicked person, (KJV)).

Send the Enemy Packing While the churches in Africa and the Ukraine took the Word and exposed the enemy, everything went wrong in the example from Denmark. Unfortunately this example is not unique. God always desires to reveal sin in the church, but in many places, the leadership lacks discernment. I have met pastors, who were not sure about their calling. They have accepted the job because of their good will and the subsistence of the job. This has nothing to do with a call. It is simply maintenance. It is time for pastors and church leaders to rise up and arm themselves. Many pastors don’t even cast out demons because they don’t believe that they exist in the church. Don’t be naive. Demons exist everywhere, just like in the days of Jesus, when they manifested in the synagogues (Luke 4:33). When God grants the gift of discerning spirits, as one of the spiritual gifts of the church, it must be because it should be used in the church. This must therefore mean that there are people in the church, who need to be set free. There are pastors who do not know the gift of discerning spirits. For this reason they are afraid of judging their own church members, even though the Bible says, they must:

We should not give the enemy a foothold, neither in our lives nor in the church. But the last part, many seem to have forgotten. Church discipline is an obsolete concept, which exists only in old, dusty church books. I once got the opportunity to look through an old church book, where I could read about the condition of a Free Church in the 1930’s. It was remarkable to see so how many were expelled because of sin. The expulsions apparently had a positive effect on the church, which grew rapidly in this period. I once heard a pastor state that expulsion doesn’t exist in the Bible. A 90-year-old woman sat next to me and listened. She had experienced the event of expelling church members in her youth and believed that it was biblical, but her comment on the issue was rejected outright with a smile. With this attitude it is not surprising that the enemy manages to play tricks on the churches – while the pastor’s wife studies zone therapy and their kids watch violent movies or escape into the newest computer-karate games five hours a day on their play-stations. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Tobiah sits comfortably in many churches, while people fight one another and wonder why they don’t get the revival, they’re hoping and praying for. It doesn’t help getting big shot pastors from countries with revival, because the solution does not come from the outside. It is found on your knees, when God reveals the condition of your life.

(1.Cor. 5:12-13) What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those

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10. DISCERNING SPIRITS

spirit and I called my friend into the room with the rest of the family. First we were going to pray a short prayer and afterwards she was then to pray for herself and invite Jesus into her heart. When it was her turn to pray, nothing happened. I experienced how the Holy Spirit inside me strongly began to speak in tongues. The nature of my friend’s tongue speech also changed and we saw how the woman’s hands curled up like claws. The mother began massaging her fingers. I was terrified, because I suddenly realised that I was facing a demon that was simply waiting to be cast out – and I was the one who had do it. I did not have the gift of discerning spirits, but I knew that casting out demons was one of the signs, which accompany those who believe. We had no choice, we were right in the middle of all this while the family stood there watching. The cigarettes were burning in my breast pocket. I feared that the demon in front of me would start reminding me of my vice: “You smoke. How could you, being bound yourself, believe that you can set others free?” But suddenly there was a deep growl. I quickly looked at my friend. We continued speaking in tongues. Finally we cried out at the top of our voices, as I prayed, again and again for the forgiveness of my smoking problem. When the woman had roared four times, the demon let her go with a scream and she was free to accept Jesus. That night she was saved and healed from her migraine. I left that place crying and with great fear.

We saw how the woman’s hands curled up like claws. The mother began massaging her fingers. I was terrified because I suddenly realised that I was facing a demon that was simply waiting to be cast out – and I was the one who had do it. After my own deliverance, I was at a service with an African pastor. This pastor asked if there was anyone in the congregation who desired the gift of discerning spirits. There were many people in church that day and no one responded to the pastor’s appeal, except me. I rushed forward as the only one, while everyone stood there looking down. No one wanted this gift,. Had the offer been for another, for example for tongues or healing, many would probably have stood in line for prayer. I desired this gift so much, because I had felt the effect on my own life. But it was also because I understood how poor I was without the gift of discerning spirits in certain situations: In 1992, while I was studying at the business school, I went to Peru on a business trip with a friend of mine to buy arts and crafts. We met a family that we got a chance to witness to and the mother, including several of her children, received the gospel and got saved. One night, as we sat there in her poor apartment, in the slum area, in the gleam of a couple of candles, the oldest daughter came for a visit. I was encouraged to tell her about Jesus and afterwards she told her story. She had had two frightening visions, which had tormented her life through the years. Among other things, she had played with the “spirit in the glass”. And apparently she also suffered from migraine. For 20 years she had only rarely left her home, because of this illness. It was clear that she needed Jesus. I told her that she was going to receive another

At this point in time I was convinced that it was not my calling to cast out demons. I promised God that I would serve Him in every other way, as long as I could be let off from the demons, but in spite of my opposition, I experienced how they 113

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manifested several times, e.g. when I prayed the sinner’s prayer with people or for the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

By meditating on the word of God (Joshua 1:8) By living justly, so that your plans can succeed (Prov. 16:3)

At the Bible school in Mariager, we gathered as a group to pray one weekend. While we sat and prayed, I suddenly received an inspiration. I turned around and faced one of the young men who sat at another table and played some games. “Are you baptised with the Holy Spirit?” I asked. “No!” he said, completely red in the face. For many years he had sought the baptism of the Holy Spirit without receiving the gift of tongues. He felt so condemned and anguished that he wasn’t a true Pentecostal and for this reason, he decided to break off his Bible school studies and go home. I spoke to him from the word of God and laid my hands on him, together with the people standing around us. While we prayed, he fell to his knees. “What’s going on?” I asked and he mumbled, “dizzy”, after which he threw up a big brown puddle on the floor. Subsequently he began to praise God in tongues. We washed the floor and wondered what in fact had happened. He left the place joyfully and completed his course at the Bible school.

When you pray and fast, you cut off the commands of your body and mind. You sharpen your spirit, which allows you to hear God better. Therefore it is important that you prioritise being with God, while you fast e.g. by waiting for God and by meditating on the words of the Bible. Fasting is not being down in the mouth, but it is a key to deliverance. (Is. 58:5-6) Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and unite the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

In this process God will always point to things in your life that you have to deal with. You have to live a life in line with God’s word. If you do not submit yourself to God’s authority, you will experience that you neither have authority nor courage to cast out demons. At the same time, you must remember that the gift of discerning spirits is a spiritual gift. If you want the ministry of deliverance to become active in your life, you can pray to God to give it to you. Spiritual gifts are given to all that desire to serve, e.g. by the laying on of hands and prophecy from God’s servants, who serve in this dimension (1.Tim. 4:14). You receive the gift in faith, just like you exercise it in faith. When you receive it, it is your responsibility to administer the gift by living justly. In this case you need grace. Give Jesus room in your life and forget everything about performance. It is not you who are to cast out the demons. It is Jesus in you. Without the power

It is therefore possible to cast out demons without discerning spirits. However, I do believe that the gift of discerning spirits is a key to deliverance, which is indispensable for any preacher. Especially in countries like Denmark, where satan has had safeconduct for many years and people rarely get delivered. Qualifications If you know that God is going to use you in a certain way, it is important that you constantly prepare yourself, so that you become consistently more effective in the area concerned. The Bible points out several ways of preparing: By prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29, KJV) By waiting for God and drawing on his power (Is. 40:31)

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from Him, nothing will happen. When God heals and delivers, it always happens by grace.

Without sacrifice, there will be no fire. Just like God acknowledged Elijah’s sacrifice on Mount Carmel, with the trial of strength, challenging the prophets of Baal (1. Kings 18), God will also acknowledge you when you invest in the kingdom of God and give you the fire, which positions you to set people free. You shouldn’t just sit there and twiddle your thumbs, waiting for your gift to be discovered. You should begin to serve. The gift does not belong to you. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit, which you must share with the people who need to be delivered.

(Eph. 4:7) But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. (Rom. 12:6) We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. (1.Pet. 1:13) Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

The fire Attracts Paul knew the grace of God and lived in it every day. His life is worthy of imitation. He did not seek demons, but the demons sought him: (Acts 16:16-18) Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortunetelling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved. ”She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

If you burn for Jesus and serve Him, the demons will swarm around your fire, like the mosquitos’ swarm around the garden lights on the terrace in the summer. The fire comes when we serve. Hebrews 1,7 tells us that God makes his servants flames of fire, but it is your job to put sticks on the fire. You must make your life a living and holy sacrifice – which is shown through a wholehearted commitment to God and His word.

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Constant Readiness I meet people with demons almost every day. It can be while walking on the street, in the supermarket or in my children’s kindergarten. The gift of discerning spirits always functions, especially when I pray in tongues a lot. In this way I edify my spirit and prepare myself to listen to God’s Spirit, so that I am ready to handle any unexpected situation: One night around midnight the phone rang. My wife and I had gone to bed. Karen got up to get the call. I knew it was important and had a strong feeling that it concerned demons. “I am not going to Copenhagen to cast out demons now!” I protested, as I went downstairs, and just as I thought: When my wife picked up the phone, I heard terrible screams. Apparently the call was from a couple of friends in Copenhagen who had experienced that one of the participants had fallen to the floor, during a prayer service. The demon manifested, but would not let go. After about an hour it began making a noise: “Chris, Chris”, it said, and then it came out clearly, “Christian!” Our friends wondered about it and thought that it would be best if they called me and asked me to 118

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come and help them. When I took the phone, the demon confessed its name and came out. It was an unclean spirit and it knew who I was.

(Luke 4:39) So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her.

The reason I, in advance, knew that this telephone call had to do with demons, was because I could sense it in my spirit. I informed my friends that I was tired and did not want to drive to Copenhagen in the middle of the night. They themselves had to finish what they had started. They continued for an additional three hours and delivered the person from many other spirits that manifested. Healing and Deliverance When Jesus sent out his disciples, he gave them power over unclean spirits, so that they could expel them and heal all kinds of sicknesses. Deliverance is often followed by healing. If you desire the gift of healing the sick, you should also pray for the gift of discerning spirits. These two things are connected. I have seen many Christians begging and pleading with God to heal a sick person. But you can lay hands on sick people until their hair falls off without seeing any healings. Sometimes it is not sickness but a demon you are speaking to, in which case it doesn’t help “just” to pray. You cannot pray to a demon. Here you must exercise the authority, given to you by Jesus, when He conquered the devil. Luke, who wrote one of the four gospels, was a practising doctor and focused as such a lot on the healing ministry of Jesus. However, even though he was a professional, he didn’t just concentrate on the physical illness or the psychosomatic, caused by mental irregularities. He went a step further and described the spiritual dimension, as he documented, how Jesus delivered many people, when they were healed.

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(Luke 4:40) When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people… (Luke 6:18) …who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured… (Luke 7:21) At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. (Luke 8:2) …and also some woman who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases… (Luke 9:42) But Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. (Luke 13:11) …and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.”

It is not only Luke, who describes this phenomenon. In Matthew we also find a number of examples of the connection between deliverance and healing (Matt. 4:24; 8:16; 9:32; 12:22). When we as Christians pray for the sick, we always have to act in accordance with the teaching of the Bible – that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power to heal all who were under the power of the devil (Acts 10:38). Modern medical science only deals with the body and soul, not the spirit, and therefore they often fall short. I once read an interview from a WHO-conference with an African doctor

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who wondered about Danish doctors’ lack of spiritual discernment. “Sometimes we use medicine, other times we send the sick to the priest!” he said and lectured the Danish doctors about how particular psychological and physical diseases can be of a spiritual character.

shook all over, and a moment later I was on the floor fighting with her demons. Another pastor came and helped me. We spoke in tongues, while we commanded the demons and broke the power of the devil. The congregation had taken a coffee break, but now they were coming back to watch and I encouraged them to participate actively by singing a song about the blood of Jesus. We continued battling when suddenly I saw a vision. I saw the woman’s mother sacrifice a chicken to satan and enter into a pact with him. God showed me that we were dealing with a spirit of the dead, coming from her grandmother. I commanded this spirit to let her go, when a deep voice protested, “Why me, grandmother? Why me?” Thereupon the pastor next to me saw in the spirit how the grandmother had been feeding her grandchild on food that had been consecrated to the spirits. We commanded her to vomit and the woman began to spit slime onto the carpet floor of the church. She went home happy.

Words of Knowledge The spirits are often exposed by the help of words of knowledge, i.e. a supernatural inspiration, where the Holy Spirit shows you how the demons have gotten in. If this happens, you must be bold. The word of knowledge is God’s wisdom in the given situation. It works like a catalyst with the word of God and sets the process of deliverance into motion. The same thing can happen through speaking in tongues. We do not always know how to pray, but the Spirit intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26). In this way we draw down the wisdom of God’s heart to our brothers and sisters. 1.Cor. 2:6-14 describes this wisdom, which we have access to. None of the rulers of the earth have ever known this wisdom and will never know it. The word of knowledge can come in the form of a thought, which suddenly appears in your consciousness. The thought is completely different from what you have been thinking and when it comes you realise that it does not come from yourself. It is also possible that God can give you a picture to judge a particular situation.

In 1994 I prayed for a Tamil woman and experienced how there was something blocking. The woman just stood there watching, while I grew more and more irritated. I sensed in my spirit that she had a demon and finally I simply became aggressive and began to shout in tongues. I had just begun, when the woman fell backwards and a demon manifested with howls and screams. When it had let her go, she began to speak in tongues and had a powerful meeting with the Holy Spirit. Afterwards she came running over to me. “A great sign Christian, you spoke Tamil!” she said. I asked her what in the world I had said. Apparently I had shouted, “In the name of Jesus” in Tamil. They were not many words, but enough for the demon to leave her.

After a service in a Free Church, a woman of Asian origin came forward and requested prayer. Her house was haunted by spirits and the woman was afraid to go home. It was late, so I took the hand of the woman and prayed God to protect her and her whole family. To me it was just a good night prayer, but suddenly I heard growling and I opened my eyes. The woman grunted and

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In the Ukraine, November of 1998, I had preached about settling the score with the past, before it settles the score with you. When I made the altar call, quite a few a people responded. I prayed for the first woman and went over to next, when the Holy Spirit told me to go back to the first one, because she had a demon. The Holy Spirit showed me that it was an unclean spirit and when I commanded it to let her go, she immediately jumped onto me. She tried to bite me and was very close. At the same time she attempted to kick me in the crotch and scratch my eyes out. Six large men had to hold her down before she was set free. Afterwards she was transformed and she smiled for the rest of the week. The pastor of the church told me later that the woman had been a prostitute and had been violently tormented by her former husband. God has given us a supernatural inspiration through the Holy Spirit, who is our omniscient counsellor and guide:

because the situation was so messed up. Both husband and wife were Christians and served in the church, but behind the facade they were on the brink of divorce. They had no fellowship with one another, neither physical, mental nor spiritual. The only thing they had in common was the children – and the man believed they could continue this way until the kids moved away from home in 10–12 years. He could not see that they had a problem, but the wife was desperate for closeness and was ready to leave him. We asked about their spiritual life and they both believed that they were right with God. “Does God speak to you?” I asked, addressing the husband. “Yes,” he answered. “Does he speak to you about the condition of things" I continued. “No,” he answered. “Then it is not God you’re speaking with, but a demon!” The last sentence flew out of my mouth and hit him like a freight train. I was pretty shocked myself and so were our wives. Subsequently, there was a long period of deep silence, it felt like at least five minutes. Suddenly the man broke the silence. “Should we pray?” he asked and then the release came: Both husband and wife embraced and forgave each other, while acknowledging the fact that they had been victims of a demonic deception. They started afresh and the following day the transformation was evident, not just between them, but also in their children.

(1.Cor. 2:10) …but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (Rom. 8:26) In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

Counselling In conversations with people, the gift of discerning spirits can likewise be of help. That which takes years for us to get through, God can take care of in one evening. A married couple, who had sought counselling with my wife and I, sat and told us about the problems they had in their relationship. We listened and felt tremendously powerless,

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Without a revelation about the condition of things, we could have talked for hours, week after week with this couple, without getting any results, because you get nowhere talking with a demon. There are many people who get counselling year after year with their problems, without ever knowing the core of the problem, namely sin, which has become an entrance for

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demonic activity. Deliverance begins in a process of repentance and the demons react, when we speak the truth, which is found in the word of God.

supernatural knowledge and boldness to speak the truth, when these people are to be delivered.

A few years ago I was privileged to witness to a middle-aged woman in a leading position who received the gospel and got saved. She told me how she had had a dream about the man she loved and had seen how all of sudden he grew horns on his forehead. But she did not take the warning seriously. She started dating this man, who was the manager of another firm, and one evening they invited my wife and I to dinner. The woman was very fascinated by my testimony, especially because of the demons and she had in fact prayed to God for a similar experience. After the dinner something unexpected happened. I had been witnessing to the man for hours and God had shown me how he had been living in sexual impurity. Shortly after the conversation turned in this direction and I decided to tell them the truth about their relationship – that they lived in sexual immorality, as long as they weren’t married. I may as well have dropped a bomb. The man reacted to the Word like a bull to a red rag. He got up and his face was completely twisted, while he yelled and screamed that we should get out of his house immediately. The woman came between us, because she was the one, who had invited us. The man drowned everything with his shouting, he left the room in anger and slammed the door behind him. “I have been praying to God to show me a demon,” the woman said, “but I never dreamt that it would be in my own house!” After this she asked us to stay and apologised for the man’s behaviour.

(1.John 4:6) We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

If people in counselling wish to follow God, then they are also ready to listen to guidance and admonition. The people who submit to the leadership, are the ones who get a breakthrough and experience deliverance. There are people who go from church to church because they will not submit. These people are driven by the spirit of falsehood. Maybe you’re thinking it sounds hard, but pray to God for revelation concerning these things and pray for the gift of discerning spirits. Then you will become effective and empowered for the revival that God will send over your country.

When revival comes, we need spiritual discernment, because there will simply not be time to counsel everyone, when people from the streets begin seeking the church. There will be a need for 125

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minds in other ways. For example when people get baptised with the Holy Spirit and begin to speak the language of the Spirit.

11. SETTING PEOPLE FREE You cannot set people free from something they do not wish to repent of. Deliverance without repentance is like cutting the weed without uprooting it. It shoots right back up again and plants more seed.

My grandfather was known as a wise man who could remove warts, abscess and ringworms on people, using incantations. He only used this form of witchcraft within the closest family, among them, my father remembers how grandfather many times took him to the chimney and symbolically removed impurities in his skin, using a breadknife, while he pronounced secret words, which my grandfather had learnt from his father. This practice became an entrance for demonic activity. When my father was a boy, one night he experienced three figures cross the room to the door of his chamber and move up to his bed. He was filled with fear and saw how the figures entered his body. From that day a change occurred in his character. He became evil and was known as a rowdy, until he got saved at the age of 17. His repentance was very violent. When he was filled with the Holy Spirit during a prayer service, he was thrown across the room twice and slammed his head onto a table without actually damaging his skull. The third time, he was lifted up into the air and landed on an armchair, after which he started speaking in tongues. It was not until many years later that he understood the connection between the three figures from his childhood and the three waves, which hit during the prayer service. The Christians say that on this occasion, he was baptised with the Holy Spirit, but today he believes that it really had to do with deliverance. It was not until after the three manifestations that he was free to receive the gift of tongues as a confirmation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

In the following chapter I will present some guidelines for what is necessary, before people get delivered. There is no special technique, but generally speaking one can say that deliverance will always be a result of repentance. When Jesus sent out the twelve disciples, we see how the preaching of the Word and repentance occurred before deliverance. (Mark 6:12-13) They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

You cannot set people free from something, they do not wish to repent of. Deliverance without repentance is like cutting the weed without uprooting it. It shoots right back up again and plants more seed. You cannot just grab a hold of any demon possessed person on the street. God never goes against a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s free will, but he hears every cry for help. The possessed, demonised and oppressed came to Jesus and Jesus set them free, e.g. the man from the tombs, which we can read about in Mark 5:1-9. Repentance Sets Free When I preach and subsequently minister to people, I often experience how demons manifest. Deliverance comes when people receive salvation, or when the Word works in peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

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When my father was saved, no one knew that he needed deliverance. However, the demons manifested when he was baptised with the Holy Spirit. That’s obvious. The Spirit of God is Holy and cannot share space with demons.

Many people are bound by the lack of forgiveness, usually because at some point in their lives someone, whom they trusted and cared for, hurt them. They get disappointed and bitter. The disappointment gnaws its way into their minds and this root of bitterness can provide a breeding ground for demonic activity.

There was once a newly saved Tamil in Hillerød, who wished to be baptised with the Holy Spirit. As we prayed for him, the Holy Spirit spoke to me about blowing on him and he flew backwards. We were four men holding him, and when the demons were gone, he began to praise God in tongues. When he recovered he had had a vision of Jesus and his life was changed. The man was a former alcoholic, but immediately after this he stepped into a ministry for Jesus.

Before I met my mother-in-law, she was troubled with allergy. She could not withstand tobacco smoke and when she participated in meetings in connection with her job, it happened that she would have to stay at home sick for several weeks, because of her hypersensitivity. The same thing happened at family get-togethers. In order to avoid the smoke she would seek refuge in the kitchen or the children’s room and was thereby excluded from the fellowship around the coffee table in the living room. She felt let down and became bitter, because the family, who was Christians, was not considerate. In 1977 God spoke to her about the problem, which no longer was the smoke, but the bitterness in her heart. She forgave the family for their lack of consideration and from that day she was healed of her allergy.

Deliverance can also occur as a result of baptism in water, which symbolises the burial of the old life without God and the resurrection to a new life with God. In countries with revival, it is common that the Spirit of God falls upon people in the baptismal pool, so that they fall over and have to be carried out of the water, in a state of unconsciousness. While they lay on the side of the pool recovering, it happens that the demons manifest and come out.

(Heb. 12:15) See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Forgiveness is Necessary Forgiveness is another important key to deliverance and like repentance a condition for liberation. Forgiveness is part of God’s “salvation package” – because you cannot receive the forgiveness of God, if you do not forgive the people around you.

Forgiveness in this case also became a key to physical healing, because the original meaning of the word goes far deeper than that, which e.g. can be read in Danish. I Luke 6:37, the word forgiveness is the Greek word apoluo, which means to acquit, release, deliver, let go, send off and separate from – in the same way as the chains of a captive are loosened and he is ordered to leave.

(Matt. 6:14-15) For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

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Love as the Motive Power Love is the motive power, when I pray for people to be delivered. Love is the greatest of all, it says in 1.Cor. 13. The gift of discerning spirits and all other spiritual gift are of no use without love.

scream, but not necessarily. Jesus ordered the demons to be quiet and we can do the same. You do not have to negotiate with the demons or ask them their names. Their lord is satan. He is the father of lies and therefore they cannot speak a single true word. I have cast out demons for three hours before the individual was set free – or free enough to go home and collect himself, until we could continue the deliverance at a later time. Deliverance is hard work, both for the one praying and for the one being set free. There are limits to how long one can endure, physically speaking. Taking a break is not the same thing as giving up.

(1.Cor. 13:2) If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

When I see how people suffer, I often get filled with a kind of “holy anger” and feel a great sense of aggressiveness against the demonic activity. Then I begin to shout. Not because I believe that my loud cries scare away the demons, but because it is natural for me to do so in these situations. Some people get startled, but usually they are the ones who have decided to be spectators instead of participating in the intercession for the people who need help. Actually I prefer ministering to people in a quiet place, listening to the Holy Spirit, as I pray. However, when the demons manifest, I couldn’t care less what the spectators think or believe. I only think of one thing, namely setting people free in the name of Jesus. Manifestations It makes no difference, whether people stand, sit or lay down during the deliverance – but personally I experience that those, who stand, often fall down under the power of God. The demons manifest in many ways and they can let go in many ways. When they leave a person it usually happens through the mouth. The breathing changes and it is sometimes seen that vomit, slime and saliva comes out. I have experienced people, who stink terribly, when they get delivered. It also happens that the demons cry out or

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Become One with the Word It is not only the preacher or the evangelist who can cast out demons. Setting people free is for all Christians and a part of the Great Commission. (Mark 16:17) And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons.

It is not a question of whether you would like to or “feel” for it. It is a commandment, given by Jesus himself. When an officer gives an order, it is only a stupid or useless soldier who doesn’t obey. If Jesus is Lord of your life, you must submit to his commands. “Yes, but how should this happen?” you ask, because you may be one of those who have never seen a demon or met people who drive out demons. In the Word you will find all the guidelines you need. Become one with the Word. Live in the Word. Speak the Word. If the glory of God is to be revealed amongst men, the Word must become flesh in our lives.

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(Luke 4:18) The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

concluded that the individual in question was not possessed, but I have also seen how this individual was delivered later on. Liberation begins when a person comes to Jesus. His word exposes the sin, but if the Word is not in us, our words have no effect. If we do not live in the light, we will not succeed in driving away darkness. If the truth does not live in us, we cannot expose the lies. If there is no love in our hearts, we cannot set people free of fear.

The Word is the sword of the Spirit, which is living and works deliverance in the given situation. Swinging the sword of the Spirit is not the same thing as quoting scriptures. You have to activate your faith. Faith is not just a hope, you have in your heart. Faith works in love. Exorcism is not a ritual, but God’s power in action. A girl who had attempted suicide several times and had been tied up in a straitjacket in a mental institution, had become a Christian. The night after her baptism, we gathered to pray for her. She fell to the floor and the Holy Spirit showed us that we were dealing with a spirit of death. We pointed to the word of God, John 14,6, where Jesus says that he is the way, the truth and the life. We asked her to quote the scripture. “I am the way!” she said, “I am the truth!” – but when she got to the last part, she threw up. “I am the life!” she panted and the spirit of death left her with loud screams. During the deliverance of a man, our daughter, who was eight years old at the time, came and asked if she could sing a song. “Streams of Joy!” she sang and immediately a spirit of suicide manifested. “Not joy!” it screamed, with a different voice than the man normally had. The girl just continued undauntedly: “I have my name written in the book of life!” which is a quote from the Bible. “Suicide!” the spirit screamed. A few minutes later the spirit was cast out. I have seen Christians “treat” demon-possessed people with the right words without the power being present. Some have thereby

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Confess Jesus as Lord When I receive a revelation from a word of knowledge, about which demon is on its way out, I sometimes order it to quote scriptures from the Bible. It does not want to do this and thereby it exposes itself. I command it for example to confess Jesus as Christ, who came in the flesh: (1.John 4:2-3) This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.

There are many scriptures, which can be of help. Scriptures about the power in the blood of Jesus, the name of Jesus and His completed work of atonement on Calvary and also about the freedom we have because of Him. (Col. 2:14-15) …having cancelled the written code, with its regulation, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Eph. 1:7) In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.

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(Phil. 2:9-11) Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Gal. 5:1) It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (2.Cor. 5:17) Therefore, if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (Rev. 1:5) To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.

It is not always that every demon lets go at once. Deliverance is often a process, which continues over an extended period of time, at the same time as the person lets the Word in and allowing himself to be filled with the power of God. Other times they don’t let go at all, because the person doesn’t wish to be free yet. The Oil of Anointing In some churches, when people get sick, they anoint the sick with oil (Jam. 5:14), but the oil of anointing can also be used for other purposes, e.g. for deliverance. (Is. 10:27) In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat.

The meaning of this verse is unclear in some translations, where the Hebrew word shemen is translated to the word fat, instead of oil. The English translation says that the anointing of the Lord breaks the yoke, which draws attention to the meaning of the oil of anointing.

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The oil of anointing was a mixture of fragrant oils, which were used by the Jews in the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting. The Priests were anointed for service (Lev. 8:12), as well as the Kings of Israel (1.Sam. 10:1) and the prophets (1.Kings 18:16). That was how they were consecrated for the Lord’s service. At the same time, the oil of anointing had a protective effect. It was forbidden to lay a hand on any man anointed by God and the punishment for touching God’s anointed was death (2.Sam. 1:16). This was why David refused to kill Saul. In spite of Saul’s evil deeds, he respected the anointing that was on him. When the enemy succeeded in killing Saul however, it was because God’s protection on his life was no longer present. The shield of Saul was like he no longer had the anointing (2.Sam. 1:21 KJV). In the New Testament it’s different. Here we are all called to be kings, priests and prophets (Rev. 1:6-7). We do not have a tabernacle, which is built by man, but we are all temples of the Holy Spirit, provided that the Spirit of God lives in us (1.Cor. 6:19). We are anointed by the Holy Spirit and as long as we walk in the Spirit, we have the protection of the Holy Spirit on our lives. People who become victims of demonic attacks, either in their minds or bodies, need to experience God’s protection anew. God’s oil of anointing breaks the yoke, which lies as a burden on their shoulders. The oil protects them against further attacks and indicates that they are consecrated to God. (Psalm 105:15). In countries with revival, e.g. Africa, the oil of anointing is used as a natural part of the Christian walk: Some years ago a plane made an emergency landing on the ocean just outside the coast of North Africa. On board was a 136

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Nigerian, who believed in the protection of the oil of anointing. When everyone else screamed for their lives, he took out a bottle of oil and poured it over his head. “Do not touch the anointed one of God!” he cried. Nothing happened to this man, who was the only survivor amongst several hundred passengers on that plane.

and confessed before God, who pardons abundantly (Is. 55:7 KJV). We have overcome him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony (Rev. 12:11). We can therefore bind the strong man with the authority of our faith and plunder his house. You don’t necessarily have to use the words “bind and loose”. This choice of words is just a description, which helps us understand what we are doing in the spiritual world, when we cast out demons.

A young African came over to me after a street service in Nairobi, Kenya. He was frightened, because satan haunted him in his dreams. One time he dreamt that satan had put his mark on him, and a few days later he discovered a strange bald spot in the middle of his woolly hair. He was afraid that he would die. I got hold of some oil and poured the contents into the hair of the man, who immediately fell over and began to throw himself around. The demons screamed and the man was set free and saved. In our home we use regular food oil for anointing. The oil we used in Nairobi was definitely not for cooking. When I later on had a look at the label, I found out that we had been using a reagent, also used for cleansing blocked up sewers. God didn’t consider the contents of the bottle, but the heart of the man and my faith. To Bind and to Loose (Mark 3:23-27) How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no man can enter a strong mans house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man.

If you have not bound the strong man in your own life, then you cannot bind the strong man in others – for satan cannot drive out satan. Therefore you have to make sure that there is no hidden sin in your life. That all conscious sin is covered under the blood

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On December 12, 1997 I woke up in the middle of the night and sensed a powerful, demonic activity in our bedroom. “You’re being visited by a prince of darkness!” I thought and I was not unsure about its presence. I was so scared that I cried, but at the same time also angry that the enemy ventured to intrude into my house. I prayed and quoted scriptures and got the oil from the kitchen cupboard so that I could anoint everyone in my home. The devil has no right to touch God’s anointed. My mother-in-law, who lives with us, felt a bit strange, when I suddenly woke her up with a splash of oil. But the prince of darkness disappeared. Four days later at a night service in the Ukraine, I understood why I had been under an attack. Here I stood with perhaps ten demonised people at one time and God did a mighty work of deliverance that night. The following time I visited the church, a young man came over to me with great joy and showed me a note in his Bible. It said, “December 16, 1997”. I got hold of an interpreter and he explained that the man had been delivered from drug addiction during the time of prayer that night. God is awesome.

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What we loose on earth is loosed in heaven – and what we bind on earth is bound in heaven. God has given the church the keys to bind and loose. Not the church building or a certain denomination, but to all God’s people.

“Conquering Demons” is not a manual for exorcism. I have merely shared the experiences that I have had, and hope that the examples in the book will give a practical understanding of the spiritual world around us. When you confront demonic powers, then don’t look for the manifestations. Focus on Jesus and listen to the counsel of the Holy Spirit. That’s the best advice, I can give you. At the same time, once again I would like to emphasise the importance of knowing the word of God. Read the Bible and make God’s word the highest authority in your life. Believe in the Word and trust that God will equip you to serve Him. When Jesus commands you to drive out evil spirits, He also gives you the power to do it. Pray in His name. Command in His name. Bind and loose according to God’s word and be bold. If you live in the Word and in a daily repentance of sin, you have no reason to fear. You can do everything through Him who gives you strength. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (Jam. 4:7).

(Matt. 16:18-19) And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

The gates of Hades is the place where the devil makes his evil plans, but we have God’s word that he won’t be able to damage the church of God. Jesus, the son of God, came in order to destroy the devil’s work (1.John 3:8), and as a Christian church, we are called to do the same – namely to trample on snakes and scorpions (Luke 10:19 + Mark 16:18). Unfortunately many have forgotten or neglected these spiritual truths. That is why we do not see the works of God in countries like Denmark. God desires to reveal his glory through us. When we bind the demons, we destroy the devil’s work, so that he no longer is able to exercise his authority. Summary A few church denominations, who deal with deliverance, have written a kind of manual about exorcism, and in the course of the preparation of this book, requests were made that I also should give a set of concrete directions on the subject. I will not do this because I do not believe that there is any “correct” procedure. If God wanted us to use specific methods, he would have inserted them in the Bible. He has not done this, but He has given us Jesus as the perfect example to follow.

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The Void is Filled When this is said and the demons are chased away, you have before you a person, in need of great care and love. Being delivered is a violent experience. Any deliverance leaves a void that needs to be filled with God’s spirit and God’s word. It is important that such a person is not left to himself, but comes to church, so that the individual is continuously under the counsel of the Word. If the person is not filled with the Holy Spirit, then pray that the person receives the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues for personal edification. I usually tell people who have been delivered that they should speak in tongues for one hour a day the first week after the deliverance. Speaking in tongues edifies the spirit of man and fills the void. At the same 140 141

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time, I advise them to go to Bible school and get “fuelled up” with the word of God. What I have is what I give. I have experienced the freedom myself, and I give that freedom in the name of Jesus to anyone who desires to be free.

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POSTSCRIPT Many years ago I saw a preacher minister powerfully in the Holy Spirit. People were healed and set free of evil spirits to an extent, which I have rarely seen in Denmark. As I stood there watching this preacher, perhaps with a touch of envy, God spoke to my heart: (Luke 10:20) However, do not rejoice that spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

This pastor continued ministering to people a long time after the service was officially over. On my way out the church door, I turned around and considered this scene. I had a strange feeling inside. The life and character of this man did not bear comparison with the anointing. The following week he fell in pride and he hasn’t preached the word of God since that Sunday. I will never forget that service, which to me is a strong warning. It is not the gift, but the giver we should focus on. Seek the giver with all your heart and ask Him to give you a character, which can bear the gift. When God uses us, it happens in grace, not for the sake of our own judgement, but because of His love for the church and for the world. (1.John 5:4) …for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

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1) What does it mean to be possessed? Being possessed means to be completely taken – both in spirit, soul and body – by a demon like e.g. the man from the Gerasenes in Mark 5.

5) What is habitual sin? Habitual sin is idle worship. Christians, who will not repent of their sin, worship their sin, instead of worshipping God. The Bible distinguishes between the new and the old life. When you become a Christian, you cannot continue living the way you have so far (1.Cor. 6:9-11). If you continue to sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, you give the devil room and thereby open up your mind for demonic activity.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

2) Can a Christian be possessed? No, no one can say, Jesus is Lord without the Holy Spirit (1.Cor. 12:3). Therefore, a Christian can never be possessed. However, Christians can be demonised or oppressed. If this is the case, the demon resides not in the spirit, but in the mind or body. This involves adults as well as children (Mark 9:17 + Acts 16:16). 3) Is sickness a sign of demonic activity? The Bible teaches us that all sickness is oppression, which like sin has satan as its originator. Jesus came and healed all, who were oppressed by the devil (Luke 4:18; Luke 13:16 + Acts 10:38), and many times during His ministry, deliverance came before healing. This is not to say that all sick people have evil spirits. This involves both physical and psychological illnesses, and if you’re dealing with a mentally ill person it is not for certain that evil spirits will manifest. When the mind is sedated by medicine, it is my experience that the demons keep still. 4) How do the demons get in? The demons find their way to the mind and body through the senses (Jam. 1:14-15). The demons can for example get in through fear, through television and violent computer games or because of abuse and habitual sin.

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6) Are some sins worse than others? No. God does not distinguish between sin. The wages of sin are death and sin separates man from God. Lust is just as serious a sin as infidelity. Anger and irascibility can be compared with murder. When we allow these and many other things in ourselves and our churches, we compromise God’s word. As Christians we are called to live in the Word. It is the Word that cleanses us, and through the Word we find forgiveness for our sins. There is only one sin, which cannot be forgiven and that is sin against the Holy Spirit: i.e. to harden our hearts, when the Holy Spirit exposes things in our lives, we need to repent of. This way we miss the grace of God, because without repentance there is no forgiveness of sin. 7) Is alcohol abuse a demon? Yes. Alcoholism is an obsession like drug addiction, which man cannot control. The body is poisoned by toxins, while the demons take over man’s free will and common sense. Thereby both physical and psychological dependence arise, which pull people down into the abyss. Just like the priests in the old covenant were not permitted to drink wine, when they were to meet God in the Tabernacle (Lev. 10:9), we as Christians – God’s saints, kings and priests

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in the new covenant – cannot drink alcohol, when we live in God’s presence. John the Baptist was not permitted to drink wine either, because he had to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and in Luke 7:28 it says that the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Paul says in Eph. 5:18 “Do not get drunk on wine…Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” When Paul advises Timothy to drink wine for his weak stomach in 1.Tim. 5:23, it is meant as medicine.

doors and in every way securing yourself against a break in, if you give the thief the best seat in the living-room and on top of that, use him as a nanny for your kids.

8) Is it wrong for a Christian to smoke? Smoke is used in all nature-religions, for sacrifices and the invocation of evil spirits, or as a medium for spiritual experiences. Tobacco is in and of itself nothing more than leaves from a plant, created by God, but the word of God warns us against this kind of fellowship with demons (Cor. 10:19-20). Even though smoking in the civilised world serves a different purpose, it ends up with idle worship, when Christians allow their need for tobacco to become more powerful in their lives than the word of God. Denmark is one of the few places in the world, where smoking is permitted in the churches. In countries with revival you’ll neither find smoke nor alcohol amongst the Christians. 9) Are there demons in Television? Yes. It swarms with demons in many of the cartoons, shown for kids. Imaginative figures are designed with body and soul and they affect children, so that they become vicious, violent and full of fear. Adults do not go scot-free either. Most of the movies, shown on TV are filled with unclean spirits and demons of murder. Unfaithfulness is presented as love and violence as heroism. Sin is camouflaged and the truth is distorted, so finally we cannot distinguish between good and evil. By watching these movies we open up for demons in our homes. If you can conquer the television, you’ve beaten Goliath. What’s the use of locking all the

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10) Are there sex-demons? Sex is a gift, which God has given the man and woman in the marriage, but satan does everything he can to destroy the beauty, God has created. There are no sex-demons, only unclean spirits. These demons attempt to ruin marriages, e.g. by the temptation of fornication (sex before marriage) and infidelity (sex outside the marriage and perversion). The demons get into the mind via TV, magazines, pornography and unclean movies, among other things. 11) Are demons out to hinder people from speaking in tongues? Yes. Demons attempt to hold Christians in bondage in all areas of their spiritual lives. The demons that hinder Christians from speaking in tongues are usually religious spirits, which have the form of godliness, but deny the power. However, it can also be other demons, e.g. unclean spirits, who confront God’s clean and Holy Spirit. 12) Can demons manifest themselves in people’s homes? Yes, they easily can. We once met a family, who were terribly haunted by evil spirits, who among other things turned the light on and off, without anyone handling the switch. The problem was specifically serious in the basement, and one day the wife was physically pushed down the staircase, so that she broke a leg. They came to church ignorant, but desperate for help. They were saved, the wife was delivered and the house was cleansed.

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13) How do you know when a person has demons? If a person is troubled by the same problems through many years, or continues to fall in the same sins, in spite of the individual going to church and living with God in the Word and prayer, it is often a sign of demonic activity. Sometimes the demons keep Christians away from powerful services, or hinder them from receiving the gift of tongues, in connection with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 14) Is it possible to set oneself free? Yes, this is possible. By filling yourself with the Word through prayer and fasting and repentance of concrete sins, revealed by the Holy Spirit. There was a woman, whom we had delivered and she went home and continued the process. She bombarded her mind with the word of God and worship music, as she spoke in tongues. Suddenly she got nauseated and went out and vomited four blots of blood and slime. She subsequently experienced how God transformed her life. 15) How can you know if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re free? When you no longer struggle with the problems described in point 13. Then there is victory, and it should be this way in the lives of all Christians.

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