How Demons Possess People

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

HOW DEMONS POSSESS PEOPLE.

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Jesus then told me he was going to show me how demons get hold of people, even believers, if they will let them.  He showed me a man in a vision. I didn't recognize the man. I saw an evil spirit come and sit on his right shoulder. (There's no significance to the right shoulder at all. If there had been, the Lord would have told me.) The evil spirit began to whisper in this man's ear, and the man began to entertain its thoughts.

Then in the vision the man became as transparent as if he were made of glass. Something seemed to go into his head. It looked like a black dot and it was almost as large as a baseball. Jesus told me that this thing first came from the outside to attack the man, but because he had listened to it and had opened his mind to it, it had entered his thinking. He had become obsessed!

Then I saw this black dot go from the man's head down into his spirit. He told me that it now possessed him wholly. Then I saw a whole group of evil spirits come in. I saw the first spirit holding a door open, as it were, for all these other spirits who were swarming in. There were so many I couldn't count them all. They looked like big flies. The first one looked like a little monkey or elf.

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Jesus talked to me about that. He reminded me of the Bible account in Matthew 12:24 which tells how Jesus was accused of casting out devils by Beelzebub, the lord of flies. He said these spirits were lower classes of spirits. The higher class demon got in there first and got control and then let the others in.

Remember the man whose house was swept clean but the evil spirit came back with seven others and they all entered into him (Matt. 12:44,45)? The one spirit knew how to get in, and he took the others with him. Jesus told me this man was possessed of the first spirit which went into him, and then he let the others in. All of them were in there, but only one fully possessed him. He then told me the madman of Gadara had a legion of demons.

Jesus told me in the vision to walk up to the man I saw in the vision. I walked up to him, and the Lord told me that from that night on, when I was in the presence of one who was fully possessed, these spirits would recognize me. They would recognize that I had power over them.

He said when a person is fully demon possessed, the demon can use his voice and state that he knows who you are. The demons will know you as much as they knew who Jesus was.

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He said that through discerning of spirits, which is an inward revelation, I would know what kind of a spirit possesses a person. He told me that if the spirit did not come out when commanded to, I should ask what his name is and how many there are within. Some won't come out until you do this.

Then Jesus showed me some things I hadn't understood before. He talked to me about the man who came out of the tombs at Gadara. (Mark 5).  Jesus said if I had been there that day I would have heard, with my physical ears, this man talking. But it was really the demon who possessed the man doing the talking. (A person present wouldn't have heard all the demons speaking unless he had discerning of spirits.) This was what Jesus told me. He said because I had this gift, at times I would see and hear into the realm of spirits. That scares some people; I'd be lying if I said it weren't so.

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Sometimes I've had spirits speak to me before I've ever said a word. I hear them. People can hear me telling them to leave, but no one else hears them talking. Sometimes they say to me very emphatically, "I don't intend to go." I say, "Yes you do, and out you go in the Name of Jesus." I've seen them go. People will be delivered. I've seen too much of it not to believe it, and I know it works.

I don't just run and jump into something. I stop and think it over for a long time before I start using it. The Lord told me one time when He appeared to me in a vision that He would rather I be too slow than too fast. He said some people receive a little revelation, and they grab it and run. They usually end up with everything messed up. It's better to be careful.

I do not believe that God is going to take novices and new Christians who know little or nothing, equip them with these things, and send them out to turn the world upside down. That's out of line with His program.

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So Jesus told me to walk up to this man. When I walked up to him, the man immediately spoke out loud and said, "I know you; I know who you are." Without thinking I told him to shut up in the Name of Jesus. He hushed. Then on the inside of me I knew what kind of spirit was talking to me. It was a deceiving spirit.

I said, "You foul deceiving spirit, I command you to come out of the man in the Name of Jesus!" Nothing happened!  So then I asked the name and how many there were in there. (Deceiving isn't a name, it's just a kind.) He said there were 19 more in there besides him. That was all I needed to know. I then commanded him and all 19 to come out in the Name of Jesus. And they came out!

- Kenneth E Hagin ( MINISTERING TO THE OPPRESSED )

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William James Roop

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Brother Roop teaches the Bible

The Gifts Are Not Perfect

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

The Gifts are not perfect.

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The gifts are not always perfect in manifestation, because they are manifested through an imperfect channel: men and women. The Spirit of God flows through us as water flows through a pipe. Sometimes as the Spirit of God flows through us something from our own personality gets mixed in with the divine flow. (After all, God uses personalities.).

God doesn't put a premium on ignorance or education, but He has to use the vessel as it is. I have seen the anointing of the Spirit of God upon one who is educated, cultured, and refined, and I was greatly blessed. On the other hand, I have heard interpretations of messages which included such words as "hain't," "ain't," "you'uns," and "we'uns." Those giving the interpretations could not go beyond their capacity. They used the best vocabulary they had. It was the Spirit of God in manifestation, but it was not a perfect manifestation.

A minister tells that in one of his services the interpretation of a message in tongues was: "My little children, don't be scared. But if you are scared, I don't blame you, because sometimes I get scared myself." Although this was not a manifestation of the Spirit of God, it does not mean that the dear one who gave it was not a Christian. 

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It does not even mean that she wasn't filled with the Holy Spirit, She wanted God to use her, but she was just speaking out of her own mind. Many times we let such manifestations scare a lot of good people off instead of giving people the right teaching. We need the operation of the gifts in our congregations. We need  everything God has provided, but we need to follow God's instructions for the proper use of these gifts so that "all things be done unto edifying" (1 Cor. 14:26).

Some excuse their spiritual excesses by saying, "I couldn't help that. The Holy Spirit made me do it." They blame the Holy Spirit for their being out of order. But the Holy Spirit, through Paul, has given us instructions so we know how to be in order.

Although we may be inspired to speak—we may have a message in tongues and interpretation, or even a word of prophecy—it is not always wise to jump up at any time. If our inspiration comes at an inopportune moment when it would not be edifying, then we should hold our peace. At the right time we can give what we have.

Many times when attending fellowship meetings and camp meetings where I was not the speaker, I could have spoken with tongues but didn't. The leaders of the meetings were men who knew God, who were filled with the Spirit, and they could give the message themselves. There was no need of my butting in from out in the congregation. In a large gathering if someone speaks in tongues or prophesies from the congregation, few hear it. If it comes from the platform, however, everyone hears it, and it is edifying.

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The inspirational and the revelation gifts are a product of both God and man. It isn't all God and it isn't all man. This is where many have missed the blessing of being filled with the Spirit. They could have spoken in tongues many years ago.

Some have said to me, "If I had known that I had a part to play in it, I could have talked in tongues 25 years ago. I had an urge to say something that wasn't English, but I thought if I spoke that out, it would just be me doing it. I have been waiting for the Holy Spirit to talk with tongues all these years."

However, He doesn't really talk with tongues. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the Holy Spirit ever talked with tongues. Instead, we read that the Holy Spirit gives you utterance, and you do the talking. That is what happened on the Day of Pentecost: "And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and [they] began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). He gave them the utterance; they did the talking.

After hearing this preached, some people have asked me, “Why didn't someone tell me? I have been afraid to talk in tongues—afraid it would just be the flesh.” But when you talk in tongues, it will be you in the flesh. God said He would pour out His Spirit on all flesh. Everyone who ever talked with tongues was in the flesh, but he was inspired by the Spirit.

- Kenneth E Hagin ( The Gift Of Prophecy )

The same thing is true with the inspirational and revelation gifts of God. They are a product of both man and God.

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William James Roop

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Brother Roop teaches the Bible

Whosoever...

Hello everyone.  Praise the Lord!

Whosoever.....

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Mark 11:24 is the verse that brought me off the bed of sickness. It is the verse I’ve used as an individual in prayer more than any other verse in the Bible. I’ve preached and taught on this verse more than any other text in the Bible.

Mark 11:24 was such a great blessing to me as I lay sick in bed. I had been given up to die by medical science. In those dark days on the bed of sickness, five doctors came and went, shaking their heads, saying that I had to die. They said I didn’t have even one chance to live, not even one chance in a million.

Then the preacher came and said I should be patient because in a few days it would all be over. It may seem funny, but I can’t tell it without tears coming to my eyes. It was between 2:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon on a hot August day in Texas. The sun was shining brightly and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. But when that preacher left my room, telling me it would all be over in a few days, that room was dark. It was as though someone had pulled the blinds and had just put out the sunlight. 

It was so dark. The preacher said I had to die.But thank God for this Word that fell from the lips of the Master as He walked the old dusty roads of Judaea long ago. Thank God, Jesus was talking to me when He said those words in Mark 11:24!

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I wrote in the margin of my Bible that this verse is for me. The word, “whosoever” in Mark 11:23 applied to me. So beside the words, “. . . WHOSOEVER shall say unto this mountain . . .” I wrote: “This means me.”

Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I say unto you . . .” and I put my name where it says “you.” Jesus said, “Therefore I say unto Kenneth Hagin.” I just took God at His Word! He said it, and I believed it. And you can put your name in that verse too.

My heart leapt within me when I read this verse of Scripture and something on the inside of me was overjoyed and thrilled with these words from the lips of Jesus. It seemed that someone had turned on a light inside of me. On the inside of me something lit up.

Jesus is talking in this verse about what you desire. He’s telling you how to get the desires of your heart. He’s discussing the subject of prayer. He’s talking about how you through prayer can receive the desires of your heart.

This is the verse of Scripture that brought healing and strength to my body and to my poor deformed heart. This verse has enabled me, through these more than fifty years, to go almost constantly day and night without sickness, disease, or pain.

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For the first thirty years of my ministry, I never really stopped to take a vacation. I would hold two to four services almost every day. Minister friends told me they didn’t see how I held up under it. They said it surprised them that I didn’t wear out.

 But I live by what I preach. It’s not a chore and it’s not a job to teach the Word of God. It’s a thrill to do it. The Word works!

Jesus is talking about how you as an individual can receive the desires of your heart. Many times, people read something else into Mark 11:24. They think God might answer their prayer if it’s His will. Well, it must have been His will to answer their prayers or Jesus never would have said to ask! 

If it wasn’t God’s will that you have the desires of your heart, then Jesus  lied about it by saying believers were to ask. I would much rather believe that someone else lied about this verse, than to believe that Jesus lied.

For about a month after that preacher left my room as I lay on the bed of sickness, I never even looked at the Bible. I didn’t even ask to have the Bible brought to me because I thought I was going to die at any minute. I thought, Surely if the preacher knew of any help for me, he would have told me. But he just told me that in a few more days it would all be over.

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In October, following that day in August when the preacher came to see me, I asked Momma to bring the Bible to my bed. I opened it to this verse in Mark 11:24 and I read it again. Then I told the Lord that the doctors said I had to die; in fact, five of them had said I had to die.

The last doctor spent forty-five minutes talking to me one day explaining my condition to me. He told me nothing could be done for me. He did say that unless a Higher Power intervened, I would die. He told me to stay ready to go. When the preacher came, he wasn’t even as kind as the doctor was about my condition! He didn’t even ask me whether I was ready to go or not. He just said that in a few more days it would all be over.

So I told the Lord what the preacher had said. Then I pointed out to Jesus that when He was on the earth He had said, “ . . Wha.t things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24).

I told Jesus that the desire of my heart — the one main consuming desire of my heart — was to have a well body. I told Jesus that I was going to take Him at His Word. I told Him that if I didn’t get off that bed, it would be because He told a lie in His Word. I said that if His Word didn’t work, then I was going to have my folks throw my Bible in the trash can.

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But I knew that His Word wasn’t a lie, and I also told Him this. I knew it was the truth. I told Him that I was going to get off that bed. I didn’t get off the bed that day, but you can see I made it!

Don’t try to put some kind of an interpretation on the Word of God. Just take it for what it says. In Mark 11:24, Jesus is talking about your desires. I can’t make this scripture work for someone else. I can help the other fellow with my faith sometimes, and get the blessing of God to work for him to some extent, but there is a part that he has to play in answered prayer.

I can’t always make God’s Word work for the other fellow; it depends on what He does with the promises in God’s Word himself. But I can make God’s Word work for me, and you can make it work for you too. Jesus is talking about what things soever you desire. He’s talking about your praying. This verse does apply to the other fellow, but he has to appropriate it himself. You can’t do it for him.

- Kenneth E Hagin ( Bible Prayers Study Course)

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William James Roop

Hospice Care and Dying

The Trucking Tango

Brother Roop teaches the Bible