The Exorcist's Bestiary

Participants sometimes fall asleep during deliverance sessions. While the reasons for this vary, I have come to find the power of the spoken word in such moments. 

While one participant was asleep, I whispered, “big breath in the name of Jesus.” The rhythm of their breathing was suddenly interrupted with a big breath. Stunned by this, I tried again, whispering even more quietly. “Bigger breath in the name of Jesus.” The participant took an even bigger breath. I tried it a third time, this time the whisper being nearly inaudible. “Biggest breath in the name of Jesus.” The impossible whisper somehow registered and they took their biggest breath yet and let it out slowly. I was amazed. A whisper in the name of Jesus was enough to get a result, but the words had to audibly leave my mouth.

The Bible has a much stronger view of the spoken word than we moderns do. Blessings and curses are spoken by biblical characters as though their actual words carry weight Isaac falsely blessed Jacob and believed he couldn’t simply take it. Jesus cursed a fig tree with his words, and it withered at once. It’s no wonder the Bible has such great concern with the words we say.

God gave us material bodies and placed us in the material world. Our mouths allow us to bring the world of our thoughts into the material world. With these words, we can sometimes speak in ways that make the spiritual realm tangible on earth. While we won’t see everything we say happen, it is good to recognize that the spoken word carries more weight than we maybe thought at first. Indeed, this recognition helps us use our words more carefully.