The Exorcist's Bestiary

I reported to the courthouse, unsure of why I had been subpoenaed in the first place. As the case continued and I mulled over various ideas about why I was present, my eyes widened when a statement was made toward my acquaintance: “They said that they’re being haunted by demons.”

Oh crap, I thought to myself. I’m here to be the fall guy for making someone think they have demons, aren’t I? Granted, I don’t believe I ever told this person they had demons. Rather, they told me about some of the odd things in their life, and I recognized that they could be dealing with demons.

Whenever people discover that demons are real, their first panicked question is, “Do I have one?” My general answer is, “I don’t know. I’m willing to take you through some inner healing with the Holy Spirit, and if he wants to point any demons out, he’ll do so in his time.” There’s really no sense in freaking out because if they are demons there, they’ve possibly been there for a long time—in which case, you’re actually used to having them.

While I can take some guesses from the outside to try to discern if you might be dealing with them, the truth is that demons can be blamed for just about anything, so it’s kind of pointless to guess. The gospels show us that sometimes sicknesses are scientific, and sometimes they’re spiritual. It’s hard to pinpoint what is what without some deeper investigation. The good news is that Jesus can be the answer to the sickness regardless of the source. Indeed, scientific and spiritual healing stories often occur in the same Bible stories, because exorcism is a form of healing.

As a rule, I don’t tell people they have demons. I will tell people that I have seen other people dealing with a similar scenario, and it ended up being demons, so it’s always good to look for inner healing—but ultimately, it’s best to make that discovery during counseling. Otherwise, who knows? You might just end up in a courtroom for feeding someone’s paranoia.

Fortunately, I was only called to be a character witness that day. But if you’re not careful with how you do exorcism, you may well feed some crazy thoughts that may backfire on you. Normalize exorcism. Make it chill. Don’t amp people up in fear. Bring them to the Holy Spirit, and let the healing begin.

Reveal: How Jesus Healed – 1208PODCAST

In this teaching, Jamin engages the crowd at Reveal Jackson by having them read through healing stories in the gospels. Together, they tallied up the common themes they saw so that they could learn how Jesus healed. NOTE: Apologies, as our mic does not pick up comments from the crowd.