Deliverance Beyond Divine Revelation
A Study of Deuteronomy 18 and Isaiah 8 in Light of the Deliverance Ministries’ Practice of Questioning Demons on Supernatural Realities

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Appendix A: Doctrinal Statements Supported by Demonic Testimony

Note: In order to clarify the doctrinal statements and teachings that these passages support, where it is not directly apparent in the quote itself, I have added a summary of the teaching before the quote. These summaries are my understanding of what the author is trying to support with these quotes, not a quote from their book. Please feel free to double check the context of each of these quotes.

A. C. Fred Dickason

1. Demon Possession and the Christian, (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1987), pp. 191

Statement: The idea that Christians can’t be inhabited by demons is a lie perpetrated by demons.

In one counseling session with Alice, I asked the demon called Non-acceptance if he had used the concept that Chris­tians cannot be inhabited by demons. He replied, “Oh, yes! We use it all the time. It is one of the best tools we have ever promoted.” Now although we do not accept the testimony of demons as the truth of God, there are times when they are forced to tell the truth as they did when confessing that Jesus was the Son of God. The demon’s statement is only confirma­tion of what we had discovered before. His forced admission was significant.

2. Demon Possession and the Christian, (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1987), pp. 194-196.

Statement: Speaking in Tongues today is often demonic

   “Proud spirit, Pride, is a tongues spirit over you?” There was nod of the head.
      “What shall I call him? Tongues?”
      Another nod of the head.
      “What is his rank?” I asked.
      “Principality” the answer came back through Carla’s lips. The demon was using her voice with an obviously different personality and attitude. She had been walking with the Lord and enjoying His fellowship. This resisting and devious spirit was not the expression of Carla’s mind.
      I commanded, “Tongues spirit, look at me. Are you the leader inside? Drop the jaw, open the mouth, use the tongue, speak to me. ‘Every knee shall bow, and every tongue....’”
      There was a raising of a clenched fist against me.
      “No, you don’t do that,” I said. “Put the hand down. ‘Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.’ Tongues spirit, you confess. The Scripture says, ‘Test the spirits whether they be of God.’ And we know you’re not of God, because you don’t honor Jesus Christ, and you resist the servant of God. You have no power. Just relax her hands.”
      The clenched fists relaxed. “Put them on her lap and leave them there.”
      The demon obeyed.
      I continued, “Tongues spirit, are you the one who came in at that church?”
      “Yes,” came the forced, clear answer.
      “How did you ever get to be such a ranking spirit? Were you a principality for God once? And then you perverted and became a principality for Satan. Am I right? Confess it out loud!”
      “Yes, you’re right,” he conceded with obvious irritation.
      “You have really failed, haven’t you? Satan used his commu­nication device to speak to a lot of angels. You use a communi­cation device to deceive people, don’t you? You came in to give Carla what she wanted, didn’t you?”
      “Yes,” came the weakling answer.
      “What was that which she wanted back then? Tell me!”
      A pause. Then the spirit stated, “She wanted a real spiritual experience with God.”
      “How did she seek it?” I asked.
      Another pause. “Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.”
      “Who laid hands on her?”
      “Men of the church.”
      “What did they promise her through the laying on of hands? What did they tell her she would have?”
      “That she’d have a fulfilled life with the Lord,” he said.
      “What was to be the evidence of this?”
      Came the answer, “The speaking in tongues.”
      “Is that when you —?”
      “But they didn’t tell her that,” came the interruption.
      “They didn’t tell her that,” I clarified. “But you came in.”
      “Yes,” he conceded.
      “Why did you come in?”
      “It was an opportunity for me.”
      I further inquired, “What were you going to do with her life, then?”
      “Lead her to the point where she did give herself over to Satan.”
      “And you almost accomplished that, didn’t you?” I responded. “But she has renounced all that; right?”
      “Yes,” came the dejected reply
      “What ground do you hold in her?”
      “None.” The reply was weaker.
      “Is that the truth before the true and living God?”
      “Yes.”
      “She has used her tongue to magnify Christ. She rejoices in the hearing of the Word, doesn’t she? Whose side is she on?” I demanded. [Pause] “Answer me, whose side is she on?”
      Then came a response in a form that surprised me: “My enemy!”
      “And who is your enemy?”
      “Jesus Christ!” The voice was filled with restrained con­tempt.
      “And what is He to her?” I pursued.
      With concession he confessed, “Her Savior.”
      “And what is she to Him?”
      “His child,” came the further resigned confession.
      “On that basis I command you to leave her body and to take all your wicked spirits with you. But first I want you to confess that Jesus Christ is your victor. Right now!”
      After a pause came the forced answer, “Jesus Christ is my victor.”

3. Demon Possession and the Christian, (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1987), pp. 238-239

Statement: Demons invade the mind

This registered nurse had been invaded by a group of demons headed by a throne called Non-acceptance. He was brought to recognize that Christ had defeated him and that the nurse was his victor in Christ. This he confessed. She had taken her stand against him with good biblical and practical understanding. He challenged my authority and tried to make me dislike her. The nurse broke back in and laughed at his attempt. She liked me and was catching on to his technique. She gave me permision [sic] to continue speaking to the throne. The greater detail of the session is instructive here.
      “My friend is getting stronger; you’re getting weaker,” I said to him. “And you have less and less influence over her mind.”
      “That’s true,” he answered, “but we use her feelings.”
      “That’s true,” I replied. “And she has feelings. How do you use her feelings?”
      “Make them stronger.”
      “You have access to her brain,” I stated.
      “Uh-huh.”
      “Therefore you produce a synthetic feeling, and you remind her of her own feelings. She picks up on them, and she rein­forces them. Is that right?”
      “Right!”
      “So the description of the psychological feeding the demon­ic and the demonic feeding the psychological is an accurate description.”
      “Yes,” the throne admitted.
      “You are mind-control creatures, and you work through the chemistry and electronics of the brain. Am I correct?”
      “Right! We have power in that,” he emphasized.
      “I bind you from using that power because that power is only allowed by God. You are an invader and a squatter; and you must leave this body because it is bought by the blood of Christ. It is dedicated to the Lord Jesus. She wants to serve Him, doesn’t she?”
      “Yeah,” came the dejected answer.
      “That frustrates you.”
      “Yeah. But if I can keep her confused, it keeps her side­tracked.”
      “How will you keep her confused?” I pressed.
      “Bringing tongues to her mind. Bringing things to her mind to reject counsel.”
      “Whose counsel?”
      “Her psychologist’s, yours, and the other pastor, preaching.”
      “And you keep bringing incidents of bitterness to her mind, don’t you?-rejection, because your name is Non-acceptance; and you play that game, don’t you?”
      “Yes.”
      “You are not accepted, are you?” I asked him.
      “No.”
      “God has rejected you; Satan has forsaken you; and my sister has rejected you, hasn’t she?”
      “Yes.”
      So went the interview and confrontation. I spent the time to develop this for the nurse and for her psychologist who doubted the reality of demonic invasion of her mind. The taped confrontation convinced the nurse that it wasn’t just psychologi­cal problems that she was facing. They certainly were there, and the psychologist was helping her noticeably But one of the root causes of her problem was the mind-control warfare that de­mons were continually pressing against her. They started by taking advantage of her emotions, which were rubbed raw by parents and others. There had been sexual molestation in the family She was hurt, and the demons would not stop tormenting her emotions and thoughts.

B. Charles H. Kraft

1. Defeating Dark Angels (Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, 1992), pp.159-160.

Frequently, God shows us something quite different from what we have done before. As we ask him to lead us, we get Impressions that, if followed, usually turn out to be just the thing he seems to have wanted. So we listen. That’s the key.
      But as we listen, he often seems to lead us, as he did while we worked with Julie, to use his power to force the demons to give us the information we need to proceed. We are working In the presence and under the power of the Holy Spirit, so we need not be afraid of allowing tire Enemy too much power or even of listening to a demon rather than listening to God. It is God who reveals things to us, even through demons! Though we have to be careful (see below), the quickest way to get the insight God wants us to have is often to get it from the demons themselves. [emphasis mine]

2. “Dealing With Demonization”, Behind Enemy Lines (C. Kraft, ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, Servant Publications, 1994), p.92

Christians are special targets of the enemy. A psychologist friend of mine discovered this fact right from a demon’s mouth. Her session with a demonized Christian lady was being observed by a non-Christian psychologist who asked the demon why he lived in the Christian lady rather than in him, the non-Christian. The reply (through the woman’s voice) was, “You are of no interest to me. You already belong to the Evil One.... Evil is within you — deeply rooted.” The demon even gave the names of four of the demons living within the man. But, pointing (with the lady’s hand) to the demonized Christian and two other Christian women, the demon said, “I’m interested... in possessing her and her and her.” Earlier the demon had said, “I am interested in destroying, in tor­menting her so she doesn’t pray, doesn’t seek God, so that she will fall away from him and be like the rest of them.” [Source quoted: An unpublished English translation of Rita Cabezas, Des Enmascarado, 1988]

3. “Dealing With Demonization”, Behind Enemy Lines (C. Kraft, ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, Servant Publications, 1994), p.93

3. Demons do their best to keep people ignorant of their presence and activity. This is a particularly successful strategy in Western societies. They love it when people don’t believe they exist. Demons have repeatedly told us this during ministry sessions. During a recent session observed by a psycholo­gist who was learning about demonization, a demon became so angry during the ministry it yelled (through its host), “I hate it that she [the psychologist] is learning about us. For years, we’ve been hiding and making them think we are psy­chological problems!”
      The fact that demons piggyback on problems already there, rather than originating problems that were not there, enables them to hide quite effectively from many people. People reason that if they can explain the problem as resulting from “natural” causes, there is no need to look further. Thus the demon wins, since his function is to reinforce the problem in such a way that the person gets discouraged, stops fighting it, and blames him-self or herself for it. Many have given up hope, thinking they were crazy or that nothing could be done about it.

4. “Dealing With Demonization”, Behind Enemy Lines (C. Kraft, ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, Servant Publications, 1994), p.101

2. In general, the more garbage, the stronger the attachment. The greater the amount of hurt a person has suffered and the stronger the negative emotional reaction, the tighter the demon’s grip. Even if the garbage is dealt with and the demon weakened, however, it can only leave if permitted by its superior to do so. Several times I have been surprised to find a very weak demon hanging on to a person and asked it why it hasn’t left, given the fact that it has so little grip on the person. Its reply is always, “I haven’t been allowed to.”

3. Demons seem seldom to work alone. They are usually organized in hierarchical groupings with one of them at the head. I have very seldom found only one or two demons in a person. In a typical ministry session we will first make contact with one of the lesser demons in a group, say, lust. Lust may have three or four demons under him (e.g., sexual perversion, fantasy, and deceit). But either by his admission or by word of knowledge we find that there is a spirit of anger over lust and a spirit of fear over anger. Fear may be toward the top of the group, with two or three others (e.g., rejection, abandonment, and pornography) between him and lust. Above fear, then, we may find demons with names like rage, destruction, darkness, and death, any of which could be the head of the group.

5. “Dealing With Demonization”, Behind Enemy Lines (C. Kraft, ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, Servant Publications, 1994), p.102

6. Demons within a person can be suppressed or weak­ened by certain things that person does. As noted earlier, among the things that weaken the demons inside people is their spiritual growth. When demonized Christians make choices that enhance their closeness to Christ, the demons lose ground. I have asked several demons why they didn’t have a stronger grip on the person they lived in. Their replies were always something like, “She’s too close to God. I can’t get her.”

C. Ed Murphy

“We Are At War,” Wrestling with Dark Angels (C.P. Wagner and F.D. Pennoyer, eds., Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990), pp.50-51.

It is interesting, however, that demons will openly confess to their participation in such a rebellion, On more than one occasion while expelling demons from a person’s life they have exclaimed,

We rebelled against God. We were deceived by our master We are doomed! For us no provision has been made for redemption as it has for mankind. We are doomed! Doomed! We are afraid. But we will fight God and you Christians until the end We hate Him! We hate you Jesus. We hate you!

      Of course, we do not build theology upon the confes­sions of lying spirits. It is interesting to note, however, that on every occasion when a demon spoke in the presence of Jesus he always told Jesus the truth. Look at the Gospel record.
      The experienced deliverance minister can compel evil spirits to tell the truth. I do so all the time. This is not to say that it is wise to carry on long conversations with demons. We only obtain from them the information we need to proceed with the deliverance and then expel them to the place where Jesus wishes to send them [emphasis mine].

D. C. Peter Wagner

1. “Territorial Spirits,” Wrestling with Dark Angels, C.P. Wagner and F.D. Pennoyer, eds. (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990), p.81.

Statement: Demons are bound to specific geographic locations

3. Costa Rica. Symptoms of mental illness left a patient when she traveled to the United States; they reap­peared when she returned to Costa Rica. Christian psy­chologist Rita Cabezas was told by one of the demons that they were limited to their territory and could not go to the U.S.A. [Source quoted: C. Peter Wagner, The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Publications, 1988), pp.61-62.]

2. “Territorial Spirits,” Wrestling with Dark Angels, C.P. Wagner and F.D. Pennoyer, eds. (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990), pp.82-83.

Statement: Defeating territorial spirits is what enhances evangelism

Evanston, Illinois. While teaching a doctoral class for me in 1985, John Wimber shared a report from Vineyard pastor Steve Nicholson. Steve had ministered in the Evan­ston area for six years with virtually no fruit. They prayed for the sick, but few got well. Then Steve went into a period of serious fasting and prayer; At one point a grotesque being appeared to him, saying, “why are you bothering me?^” It eventually identified itself as a demon of witchcraft who had supervision over the geographical area. In the heat of the baffle, Steve named the city streets surround­ing the area which he claimed for the kingdom of God. The spirit said, “I don’t want to give you that much.” Steve replied that through Jesus he was commanding him to give up the territory The spirit argued with him, then left.
      Immediately the sick began getting well. In a little over three months the church more than doubled from 70 to 150, mostly from new converts out of witchcraft. Almost every one of the new believers had to be delivered from demons as they were being saved.

Appendix B: Appealing to Other Religions and World Views to Expand and Substantiate Teachings on the Demonic

Note: In order to clarify the doctrinal statements and teachings that these passages support, where it is not directly apparent in the quote itself, I have added a summary of the teaching before the quote. These summaries are my understanding of what the author is trying to support with these quotes, not a quote from their book. Please feel free to double check the context of each of these quotes.

A. C. Peter Wagner

1. “Territorial Spirits,” Wrestling with Dark Angels, C.P. Wagner and F.D. Pennoyer, eds. (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990), p.76.

Teaching: There are many demons on Earth and they are organized hierarchically.

I do not know how many evil spirits there are around Planet Earth. One interesting set of figures comes from Friday Thomas Ajah, a Sunday School superintendent at the Assemblies of God church in Oribe, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. For years before his conversion he was a high ranking occult leader, given the name of Saint Thomas the Divine, purportedly by Satan himself. Ajah reports that Satan had assigned him control of 12 spirits and that each spirit controlled 600 demons for a total of 7,212. He says, “I was in touch with all the spirits controlling each town in Nigeria, and I had a shrine in all the major cities.” If this report is true, it would not be unreasonable to postulate that other such individuals, not yet saved, could be found in considerable numbers around the world. [Source cited: Friday Thomas Ajah, “Saved at Last,” Testimonies, Vol. 1. No. 4, August 15-30, 1985, p.6 (P.M.B. 4990, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Nigeria).]

2. “Territorial Spirits,” Wrestling with Dark Angels, C.P. Wagner and F.D. Pennoyer, eds. (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990), pp.85-86.

Teaching: Evil spirits are bound to geographic territories

In attempting to apply this to world evangelization, Jacob Loewen helps us by pointing out that “In many societies throughout Central and South America the spirit dei­ties associated with various geographical or topographical phenomena are spoken of as their ‘owners.’” Many nomads, for example, never make camp outside their own territory until they secure permission from the spirit owner. Loewen adds, “People never own the land; they only use it by the permission of its true spirit owners who, in a sense, ‘adopt’ them.” Although Loewen doesn’t say so, I would imagine that among such animistic peoples the names of these spirit owners of territories are well known. [Source quoted: C. Peter Wagner, The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Publications, 1988), p.60; and How to Have a Healing Ministry Without Making Your Church Sick (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1988), p.201.]

B. John Robb

“How Satan Works at the Cosmic Level”,  Behind Enemy Lines (C. Kraft, ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, Servant Publications, 1994), p. 173

Though we must be careful of constructing a theology of the spirit world based on pagan belief systems, the possibility of a hierarchy of spirits may be borne out by the perceptions of animistic peoples. Animists typically believe in a hierarchy headed by a supreme god, who is remote and unknown, and in a pantheon of lesser deities, superior spirits who exercise great power over a wide range of affairs. Beneath these are the lesser and the more immediate spirits of their ancestors, and finally, the evil spirits. The Burmese believe in nats, supernat­ural beings arranged hierarchically with control over natural phenomena, villages, regions, and nations. The cult of guardian spirits in northeast Thailand involves both village and regional spirits, the village ones being subordinate to the regional. In India, Hindu goddesses serve as “guardians” of villages and regions. They arc often associated with disease, sudden death, and catastrophe. Kali, goddess of destruction, is a regional deity widely recognized to exert influence over West Bengal and the Bengali people.
      A missionary in Thailand believes he has identified the national principality that reigns over the whole country. It is a being known as Phra Sayarn Devadhiraj, which means “greatest of the guardian angels of Siam.” It is believed this deity has kept Thailand from being overrun by invaders. King and queen preside over a royal homage-paying ceremony, with the whole nation joining in the worship of this spirit, whose image resides on a throne in the royal palace.

Appendix C: Disclaimers and Defenses of Methodology

Note: These are quotes from the writings of the spiritual warfare proponents that are contradicted by their own practices and other passages in their books.

A. C. Fred Dickason

Demon Possession and the Christian, (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1987), p. 161.

We must be careful not to label research in to demonizations a type of divination or spiritism. It is directly opposed to such a thing. It does not gullibly seek information from spirits of men or of superior creatures. It does not seek to advance personal wisdom or power. It does seek to determine whether believers have been invaded by demons and in doing so depends upon the risen Christ to clarify the matters needed to help the oppressed.

B. Charles Kraft

1. Defeating Dark Angels (Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, 1992), p.161.

2. Demons can’t be trusted. It is true, demons cannot be trusted. But I’m afraid the real issue is not whether we can trust demons, but whether we can trust ourselves and God to discern what of the things they say is usable and what will mislead us. As one who has talked to hundreds of demons, I agree that this is a concern.
      However, most of what demons say can be checked out. It can also be controlled. I have frequently told demons to “Shut up!” because they tried to take control away from me and the Holy Spirit We need to make it clear to them that they are not in control, we (with the Holy Spirit) are. Once I got used to being in control and asserting it, the problem of not trusting the outcome disappeared.
      As we grow in listening to God and extracting information from demons, we will find it easy to spot most of their at-tempts to bluff and distract us. Over and over again, then, in spite of the demons’ attempts to mislead, we discover things that enable us to bring inner healing and freedom to our clients more quickly and effectively than otherwise.

2. “Dealing With Demonization”, Behind Enemy Lines (C. Kraft, ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, Servant Publications, 1994), p.107

These are some of the things that can be discerned natu­rally, either by observation or by asking questions. In addition, God does show things to people supernaturally, though usu­ally in combination with the observation of natural phenom­ena. As you develop more experience, you will find your ability to discern sharpened. You will also notice that demons make a lot of mistakes that give them away. Learning to spot these mistakes and to take advantage of them is an important part of the operation.