The Exorcist's Bestiary

“What we focus on expands, and the enemy doesn’t deserve that sort of attention,” the Holy Spirit told my participant.

I immediately resonated with that truth. In high school, I struggled to sleep well because every time I got in bed, I’d start to think about all of the worst things I’d ever done. I’d repent my heart out and ask for forgiveness while hoping God still loved me. I’d fall asleep repenting, wake up, and repeat it the next night. After years of this, I realized these thoughts didn’t match the voice of God. I was under the spell of a different kind of voice. But I couldn’t make the voice stop talking, so what was I to do?

I eventually developed a plan of holy ignorance. If I couldn’t stop the voices, I would fall asleep to different voices. And so every night, I’d pass out while watching Spongebob, Fairly Odd Parents, The Simpsons, or Futurama. My brain was brought out of the dark by the light of the TV, and my sad thoughts were replaced with humor. Sometimes, I’d fall asleep before the theme song even finished, as though it were a lullaby. The demons still had a hold on my life when it came to this topic, and it would be years before the Holy Spirit graciously removed them, but by creating a plan of holy ignorance, the demons had lost one of their most effective strategies. This new habit worked so successfully that eventually, night was no longer a problem for me whether a TV was on or not.

Of course, it’s important to distinguish between what I call holy ignorance and unholy ignorance. Unholy ignorance is pretending something isn’t happening and not allowing the Holy Spirit to address it so he can pull the dysfunction up from the root and you can escape it. Holy ignorance is recognizing the enemy’s voice and finding an effective strategy to shut it down. Like Eve’s temptation, demonic thoughts often get worse with conversation. They are expert debaters and always one step ahead of you. What we focus on expands, and the enemy doesn’t deserve that sort of attention.