The Exorcist's Bestiary

“Don’t let him speak, he will cast a spell on us,” Aragorn says to Legolas and Gimli as they fear they’re about to meet the corrupted wizard, Saruman.

These are generally wise words when doing a deliverance. While there are spiritual warfare strategies that come in handy when demons are speaking, they will often use the time to curse, mock, and taunt you. They are liars and deceivers and you must guard your heart and mind from their words, lest they find a way to get under your skin.

For example, when one demon got chatty, I used the moment to try to ascertain some information. This conversation quickly turned into taunts. Every solid theological reply I gave was immediately argued by the demon. Eventually it settled for the creep factor and said, “I see your weak spots.”

At that point I worked to immediately end the conversation. I knew all it would do next was try to speak things over me—to cast a spell on me, in the sense that it would put words and identities in my head that I would struggle to get out.

We all struggle with this. The people and demons we encounter are always trying to speak lies and judgments and taunts over us. You only have to scroll through a few social network comment feeds to see that. We must surrender each statement to Jesus so that we might avoid falling under any such “spells,” if you will.