The Exorcist's Bestiary

“I think you need to pray that people will remain open to this event,” my friend texted me as our second annual Reveal Jackson conference kicked off.

“Why’s that?” I texted back. “The Holy Spirit tell you something?”

“Uh… no,” they replied. “I can see a demon sitting at the table next to me. It’s sitting in an empty chair, and it’s annoyed at the event. Someone just put their arm around that chair and pulled it next to them to lean on, and the demon leaned over and started whispering in their ear. I think it’s trying to make people believe this event is crazy and get them to leave.” I looked across the room at my friend, who had a confused and stunned look on their face.

I had no problem believing this. Indeed, it feels like every time we’ve done one of these events on spiritual gifts, demonic attacks have been heightened. To honor what the Holy Spirit had revealed to my friend, I asked our emcee to make the following announcement when the speaker was done: “As we head to our breakouts, there’s been a really firm word given to us that the enemy is trying to close minds off to this event. We ask that you prayerfully remain open to what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life as we continue forward.”

There are many different ways that the Holy Spirit helps us discern demons and what they’re up to. The particular gifting my friend experienced was that of a seer gifting. But this was next-level seer stuff. More often than not, the visions of seers happen in the mind, but on rare occasions, the Holy Spirit allows the seer to witness spiritual reality with their eyes wide open (2 Kings 6:17).

For some, open visions seem to be a more consistent gifting of discernment during exorcism, as it’s an “ability to distinguish between spirits” (1 Corinthians 12:10). An exorcist named David Appleby says he knows a few seers and brings them in to work with him occasionally. They can often see the demon connected to the participant and give him advice based on what the demon is doing in reaction to his words.

As with other spiritual giftings, the Holy Spirit can use all five of our senses to give us discernment and teach us something. This is especially helpful when casting out demons, as we must figure out how to remove each one in its own way. Through my friend’s experience, we learn that all thoughts are not our own, and so we must take every thought captive and test it (2 Corinthians 10:5)—even when we’re in church.