The Exorcist's Bestiary

On rare occasions, I’ll get a message from someone telling me that they feel like they removed a demon from themselves. “Is that possible?” they ask.

It certainly was for me. Before I could help others get demons out of themselves, God had to address my own while I was praying at home one day. Soon after my deliverance, I preached a message about the topic and got a text that an acquaintance listened to it, applied my technique, felt something leave, and had the fruit to prove that it did. After counseling someone on their shame for many hours one day, they went home, decided they were done being shameful, and kicked Shame out overnight.

So can it happen? Yes. But should you do it? That depends. I remember sharing my deliverance story with a stranger once, and he went home and tried it himself. His case must have been far too advanced because I heard through the grapevine that it went very badly.

So what causes self-deliverance to go well for some and not for others? There are far too many factors to give a one-size-fits-all answer to that question. But if I were to look for a common theme in the cases I’ve heard of, it’d be this: it goes better for those who have already invested a lot of effort into finding inner healing. Someone once told me that they wished their deliverance would be a one-and-done session like mine, to which I responded: “No, I spent years working on the themes of this demon before I realized it was a demon. I had already loosened its grip through my efforts, so it had less space to stay when I finally addressed it directly.”

This reminds me of a story I was once told, though I can’t verify it. Someone had gone through recovery when a demon was found in them. When the demon was asked what right it had to remain there, it responded, “I don’t have one anymore. But no one ever told me to leave.” I think that is sometimes (but not always) the case in self-deliverance stories.

Deliverance is a form of counseling/therapy/psychiatry that carries a spiritual power component. I can’t tell you what you should do because I don’t know where you are on the journey. Is it possible to remove a demon yourself? Sometimes. But those of us who promote inner healing are here to help you figure it out and deal with the variables. Listen to the Holy Spirit for direction on this topic.