Contents

1    Discerning of Spirits

2    Ministering to the Oppressed

Chapter 1

Discerning of Spirits

In this third volume in a series on the devil and demons, I want to teach particularly about demon oppression and the operation of the spiritual gift of discerning of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10).

We know from the Scriptures that demons have to do with the fall of Satan. God did not create the devil as he is now. We read in Ezekiel 28:15 that he was perfect until iniquity was found in him. God did not create him a devil. We read that he was lifted up because of his beauty (Ezek. 28:17).

We also read that in the beginning of time, before man was created, Satan ruled and had a kingdom. He said he would exalt his throne (Isa. 14:13,14). It is possible that demons on the earth today could be the spirits that Satan ruled upon the earth in that pre-Adamic kingdom. In my opinion, this is the case. Remember that when God made man, He told him to be fruitful and multiply and to replenish the earth. We do not have as much light on this subject as we would like, but we have all we need to know.

Evil spirits are here, and they want to manifest themselves in the sense realm in this world. Working from the outside, they can oppress. You can sense their presence.

Evil spirits are fallen beings who seek embodiment. The reason demons want to embody man is so they can work through him and do their greatest harm and evil in the world. When a demon embodies a man, it makes that man what it is.

The Word of God speaks of people with lying spirits. The lying spirit will make a liar out of a person. It is obvious that these spirits oppress the physical body. Jesus spoke one time to a man who had a deaf and dumb spirit, and He told the spirit to come out of the man.

The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, can manifest Himself through us to do the greatest good in the world. That is the reason we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

I'm glad that the Lord Jesus has not left the Church helpless, but He has given the Church supernatural equipment to accomplish the work of God. And included among the supernatural equipment God has made available to the Church is the gift of discerning of spirits.

Jesus told me when He appeared to me in a vision in 1952, "Discerning of spirits is supernatural insight into the realm of spirits. It has to do with spirits, not with people. The spirit may be oppressing a person, or it may be behind a certain manifestation, but even then you deal with the spirit and not the person. ”

Too often we haven't gotten to the real cause of our problems. We deal with the person instead of the spirit who is behind a situation, and we miss the whole thing.

Some people say, "I have the gift of discernment." But the Bible speaks of no such thing as "the gift of discernment."

There is a spiritual gift called discerning of spirits. There is another gift called the word of knowledge, and that is really what some people call the gift of discernment—but it isn't. Too often what people call discernment is nothing but a "gift" of suspicion and fault-finding. Too many have that "gift," whether they are saved or unsaved, much less filled with the Holy Spirit! They are always finding something wrong with someone else.

The true spiritual gift, discerning of spirits, has to do with spirits and not people. As Jesus said to me, "Discerning of spirits is supernatural insight into the realm of spirits." One meaning of the word "discern" is "see." Jesus told me I would be able to see into this realm and would see these spirits.

Before that, I'd never had the gift of discerning of spirits operating in me, although the gift of the word of knowledge had begun to operate immediately after I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in April 1937.

The word of knowledge is supernatural revelation concerning facts in the mind of God about people, places, or things. When dealing with demons, you can have knowledge of the presence of spirits through the word of knowledge.

But if the gift of discerning of spirits is in operation, you will actually see into the realm of spirits. Since 1952 when Jesus appeared to me, I have seen into that realm again and again. I have seen not only evil spirits, but, at times, angels as well.

Buddy's Demon Problem

I tell the story of my son-in-law, Buddy Harrison, quite often as an illustration of seeing in the realm of spirits. Reverend Harrison is, at this writing, founding pastor of Faith Christian Fellowship in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is also president of Harrison House Publishers. But in 1963, he had problems.

He was unable to stay with anything. He would not keep a job; he'd just quit and walk off. He wouldn't stay in church. One time we'd see him in church leading the choir, and everything would be fine. The next time we'd see him, he would be out of church, and he would walk up to me and blow cigar smoke in my face. I never said anything. I just loved him. I knew the devil had hold of him. He was a roller-coaster, or a yo-yo Christian. Up and down. In and out.

In October 1963, the Spirit of God spoke to me about Buddy. I had come to Tulsa to speak on a Saturday night at a Full Gospel Business Men's banquet, and then to teach a Holy Spirit seminar the following Monday through Friday for the FGBMFI. We held the seminar in a local church. God began to move—and instead of five nights, the meeting lasted eight weeks.

I ministered in two services a day—morning and night—for those eight weeks. One afternoon, between services, I was in one of the Sunday School rooms praying about the night service. I had grown tired praying on my knees and was lying flat on my back on the carpet, praying in other tongues.

Suddenly, the Spirit of God spoke to me about Buddy. He said, "There are three demons that follow Buddy around."

I had a quick spiritual vision. I saw Buddy walking down the sidewalk. I saw three spirits following him like little dogs would follow a person, except they didn't look like little dogs. They were monkey-like—about that size, and wiry. One was on the right edge of the sidewalk, one on the left edge, and one in the middle.

The Spirit of God said, "He will turn to the right and yield to the demon on the right. Then he will turn and yield to the demon on the left. Then he will yield to the demon in the center. It seems at times that he is almost a different person."

Whatever the demon was that he yielded to, Buddy would act that way. Relatives had even remarked, "I don't understand Buddy. Is he schizophrenic?"

Buddy was a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian. But just because you are filled with the Holy Spirit does not mean you are incapable of yielding to the devil. You still have a will of your own.

You can yield to the devil and let the devil dominate you anytime you want. You can yield to the flesh and let the flesh dominate you. You can yield to the world and let the world dominate you.

The Bible teaches that you have to deal with the world, the flesh, and the devil. But you do not have to yield to any of these, thank God.

The Lord said to me, "You speak to those spirits. Command them in my Name—the Name of Jesus—to desist in their maneuvers. Command them to stop."

I said, "I'm in Oklahoma. Buddy is in Texas."

He said, "In the spirit realm there is no distance."

I said, "Tell me again just how I do that."

He said, "You say, 'In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command all three of you foul spirits following Buddy around to desist in your maneuvers and stop in your operations.'"

I rose to a seated position and said that.

Then the Word of the Lord came unto me saying, "Within ten days he will have a job. He will stay with that job until he does something else I have for him."

I wrote it down on a piece of paper, dated it, and put it in my billfold. The next time I saw Buddy, he said, "Dad, I got a job." I said, "I know it." I pulled that piece of paper out and handed it to him. He said, "That's the very day I got the job" as he counted ten days from the day it was dated.

He stayed with that job and made a success of it. They made him an assistant manager—and wanted to make him manager of another business. But God called him to Minneapolis to be a choir director in a church.

His boss told someone, "I don't understand that young man. He went off to Minnesota to be a song leader for $100 a week. I offered him $20,000 a year to manage this business. I guaranteed him $30,000 within 18 months. There is no doubt that in five years he could be making $50,000 or $60,000."

But Buddy wanted to obey God—and he's been going with God ever since. And it was through the gift of discerning of spirits that his deliverance came.

Four Kinds of Demons

Jesus went on to say in that vision of 1952, "There are four divisions of the forces of the devil. Paul lists them in Ephesians 6:12: 'For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.'"

He added, "Paul is starting with the lowest class, progressing toward the highest, in respect to their division and work." (Satan is well regimented in his work. And yet, some don't want Christians to have any regimen to their lives. But we're battling a spiritual army.)

The four classes are: (1) Principalities, the lowest class; (2) Powers, the next class; (3) Rulers of the darkness of this world, the highest type of demon we have to deal with on the earth; and (4) Wicked spirits (or spiritual wickedness) in high places. This highest class exists in the heavenlies, not on the earth.

(The lower classes of demons do very little thinking for themselves, for the rulers of the darkness of this world rule over them and tell them what to do.)

Jesus continued, "It's always a ruler of the darkness of this world who possesses a person, as in the case of the man at Gadara. Notice the Bible says the Gadarene was possessed of the devil and had a legion. Somebody said 2,000 demons possessed him, but that isn't right; read it again. Only one of them possessed him, and this is always the case.

"The possessing one will let the others come in with him, but only one will ever possess a person. It is always one of the rulers of the darkness of this world who does the possessing and then it will let others in with it."

Jesus added, "These rulers not only rule in the realm of these wicked spirits, but they are exactly what Paul says they are: 'rulers of the darkness of this world' (Eph. 6:12). They are ruling in this world. The only place they aren't ruling is where the light has come."

What light? The light of education? The light of science? No. The light of the Gospel! The Word says that we believers are the children of light, not of darkness. We are born again. The Word says in Colossians 1:13, speaking of God and His great plan of redemption, ”Who hath delivered us from the power [the Greek word translated 'power' means authority] of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” One translation says, "the son of His light."

Paul said in Second Corinthians 6:14-16:

2 CORINTHIANS 6:14-16

14    Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

15    And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

16    And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

One thing he said was, "And what communion hath light with darkness?" (v. 14).

Then Jesus said to me, "Every person who is unsaved is more or less dominated and ruled by demons and evil spirits. He is in the kingdom of darkness. Many times even people who are saved yield to these spirits and let them dominate. If you let them, they will dominate, because they are real. That's the reason people do things and don't know why they do them."

Domination by Evil Spirits

I was preaching in California one time when I read in the newspaper that a young man 28 years of age had drowned his own 4-year-old son in the bathtub. When the authorities questioned this young man, they found he was all right mentally. He had no record of wrongdoing, had a good job, and lived in a fine home. He had no financial worries, came from a good family from whom he had inherited part of his wealth, and had worked in the family business. They couldn't find one thing wrong with him.

He himself said there wasn't anything wrong with him mentally; he wasn't worried, had no problems, and the child was good. "But," he said, "while I was bathing him, I suddenly had an uncontrollable urge to harm him and a voice told me to do it. I yielded to it, and when I came to myself, I was holding the child under the water. I cried, 'O God, why did I ever do it?'"

You see, he was dominated by evil spirits—rulers of the darkness of this world. They rule people who are in darkness. But we are the light! Jesus is our Lord! He is the One who dominates us. He is the Ruler over us; He is our Head.

Satan is the head of those who are unsaved. You know, if the unsaved really knew the truth, they would be knocking at our doors begging us to pray with them and help them. We wouldn't be begging them to get saved.

Then Jesus said, "I'm going to teach you how these demons get hold of people—even Christians—if they will permit them to do so."

(Some people preach that if you are a believer you are automatically safe. Friends, these things don't work automatically. Man is a free moral agent; he is not a robot or a machine. Some have imagined that since they are a blood-covered Christian the devil cannot cross the blood line. Now, he can't if the individual in faith appropriates that blood, but if that individual wants to listen to the devil, he can listen to him. I don't care if you are saved, if the devil talks to you about robbing a bank and you want to listen to him, you can go rob that bank. People are not going to be protected automatically. You have to work together with God. We walk by faith, and not by sight!)

Then Jesus said to me concerning believers (not unbelievers, as they are already under the dominion of Satan), "The only way in the world that the devil can get into the spirit of a believer is through his mind."

Jesus said, "That's the way Satan got into Eve. He said, 'Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?' He showed her that fruit; she could see that it was good. Her eye told her head. Then the devil injected a thought, a question, a doubt in her mind. 'Why has God said? Because when you do eat it, you will be like God yourself.' And she listened to him."

The only avenue the devil has, Christian men and women, is through your mind! No wonder the Bible says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee" (Isa. 26:3). No wonder the Bible says, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things" (Phil. 4:8).

It does make a difference what you do with your mind. We need to know this. In some places people get upset because we mention something about the mind. I've had pastors say to me, "That seems like Christian Science." No, as one medical doctor said, "This is not Christian Science; this is Christian sense." It does make a difference what you do with your mind. Keep it closed to Satan's thoughts and suggestions. Keep your mind on Jesus.

Someone said, "I don't have peace." Then we know what is wrong with you. Your mind isn't on Him. You give yourself away. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee" (Isa. 26:3).

The Bible says in Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” You can't let your mind wander off anywhere you want it to and expect to have peace. You have to shut your mind to Satan and his suggestions. Keep your mind on God and the Word of God.

2 CORINTHIANS 10:4,5

4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

17 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

The margin of my Bible says "casting down reasonings," and later it says "bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

Jesus reminded me of an incident that shows how wrong thinking can mislead a person. I was ministering once and through the word of knowledge I knew someone in the healing line had an evil spirit. I knew he was actually possessed by it and not just oppressed.

I kept looking around to see who it was. Finally the Lord told me. I knew it was the third man back in the healing line. I intended to wait until he stood in front of me before telling the foul spirit to come out of him in the Name of Jesus. But the devil knew what I was about to do.

Before I ever said a word, he spoke up and said, "You can't cast me out." I told the foul spirit I could, but he answered that I couldn't. He said the man wanted him to stay, and that made it impossible for me to cast him out. I admitted he was right and passed on to another person.

I talked to that man a few days later when I met him on the street. I knew he had this spirit in him. Although he appeared very religious and quoted Scripture, he was all tangled up. He believed almost everything you could think of. He didn't actually believe what the Bible teaches.

As I talked to him, he started quoting Scriptures to me. I told him he wasn't scriptural, as he was taking verses out of context. I told him what he was saying wasn't what those Scriptures meant. I told him he was misled, and that it wasn't Bible; it was false doctrine.

The Bible plainly says that "in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils" (1 Tim. 4:1). This is what had happened to that fellow. He said he wanted to believe that way. I told him if he wanted to be free, I could help him. But he said he didn't want to be free. He wanted to believe what he was believing.

Thank God, though, if people want help they can have it. Yet as Jesus told me, you can't cast the devil out of people if they don't want help.

How Demons Possess People

Jesus then told me he was going to show me how demons get hold of people, even believers, if they will let them.

He showed me a man in a vision. I didn't recognize the man. I saw an evil spirit come and sit on his right shoulder. (There's no significance to the right shoulder at all. If there had been, the Lord would have told me.) The evil spirit began to whisper in this man's ear, and the man began to entertain its thoughts.

Then in the vision the man became as transparent as if he were made of glass. Something seemed to go into his head. It looked like a black dot and it was almost as large as a baseball. Jesus told me that this thing first came from the outside to attack the man, but because he had listened to it and had opened his mind to it, it had entered his thinking. He had become obsessed.

Then I saw this black dot go from the man's head down into his spirit. He told me that it now possessed him wholly. Then I saw a whole group of evil spirits come in. I saw the first spirit holding a door open, as it were, for all these other spirits who were swarming in. There were so many I couldn't count them all. They looked like big flies. The first one looked like a little monkey or elf.

Jesus talked to me about that. He reminded me of the Bible account in Matthew 12:24 which tells how Jesus was accused of casting out devils by Beelzebub, the lord of flies. He said these spirits were lower classes of spirits. The higher class demon got in there first and got control and then let the others in.

Remember the man whose house was swept clean but the evil spirit came back with seven others and they all entered into him (Matt. 12:44,45)? The one spirit knew how to get in, and he took the others with him. Jesus told me this man was possessed of the first spirit which went into him, and then he let the others in. All of them were in there, but only one fully possessed him. He then told me the madman of Gadara had a legion of demons.

Jesus told me in the vision to walk up to the man I saw in the vision. I walked up to him, and the Lord told me that from that night on, when I was in the presence of one who was fully possessed, these spirits would recognize me. They would recognize that I had power over them.

He said when a person is fully demon possessed, the demon can use his voice and state that he knows who you are. The demons will know you as much as they knew who Jesus was.

He said that through discerning of spirits, which is an inward revelation, I would know what kind of a spirit possesses a person. He told me that if the spirit did not come out when commanded to, I should ask what his name is and how many there are within. Some won't come out until you do this.

Then Jesus showed me some things I hadn't understood before. He talked to me about the man who came out of the tombs at Gadara. (Mark 5).

Jesus said if I had been there that day I would have heard, with my physical ears, this man talking. But it was really the demon who possessed the man doing the talking. (A person present wouldn't have heard all the demons speaking unless he had discerning of spirits.) This was what Jesus told me. He said because I had this gift, at times I would see and hear into the realm of spirits. That scares some people; I'd be lying if I said it weren't so.

Sometimes I've had spirits speak to me before I've ever said a word. I hear them. People can hear me telling them to leave, but no one else hears them talking. Sometimes they say to me very emphatically, "I don't intend to go." I say, "Yes you do, and out you go in the Name of Jesus." I've seen them go. People will be delivered. I've seen too much of it not to believe it, and I know it works.

I don't just run and jump into something. I stop and think it over for a long time before I start using it. The Lord told me one time when He appeared to me in a vision that He would rather I be too slow than too fast. He said some people receive a little revelation, and they grab it and run. They usually end up with everything messed up. It's better to be careful.

I do not believe that God is going to take novices and new Christians who know little or nothing, equip them with these things, and send them out to turn the world upside down. That's out of line with His program.

He plainly said, even concerning the office of a deacon, not to put in a novice. Someone who is new in the things of the Spirit might be lifted up in pride. I know ministers who have had gifts of the Spirit operating in their lives and today they are shipwrecked. They tried to build a ministry on spiritual gifts, but you cannot do that. You cannot put a spiritual gift above the Word of God.

Jesus did not tell the disciples to go into all the world and work spiritual gifts. He said for them to go preach the Gospel. We're supposed to preach first. I've been around Pentecostal people for years and I've learned many good things. I think they're the finest people in the world. They're my people. But we miss it sometimes. I've had people say they had a wonderful service and they didn't have any preaching. I like to see God move, but I like to see a little of the Word also.

Preaching and teaching had first place in the ministry of Jesus. The Bible plainly says, "Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people" (Matt. 4:23). Let's get it like it ought to be! Then we'll have the Word confirmed with signs following.

We'll have it in right focus.

So Jesus told me to walk up to this man. When I walked up to him, the man immediately spoke out loud and said, "I know you; I know who you are." Without thinking I told him to shut up in the Name of Jesus. He hushed. Then on the inside of me I knew what kind of spirit was talking to me. It was a deceiving spirit.

I said, "You foul deceiving spirit, I command you to come out of the man in the Name of Jesus!" Nothing happened.

So then I asked the name and how many there were in there. (Deceiving isn't a name, it's just a kind.) He said there were 19 more in there besides him. That was all I needed to know. I then commanded him and all 19 to come out in the Name of Jesus. And they came out.

I wanted to know where the spirits who were in this man went. You remember in Mark 5:13 the devils went into the swine and the swine went off the cliff. I asked Jesus where evil spirits go when they're cast out. (I'd heard preachers say they were going to cast them into the abyss or pit.)

I asked Jesus if I should have done more than just cast these out—if I should have cast them into the pit, or into hell. He said that I couldn't. Jesus said with the lower class you could, but there wasn't too much accomplished by it. He said you can't do that with the rulers of the darkness of this world. I asked Him for Scripture.

He told me that if we could do this, He would have gotten rid of all of them when He was on earth. In the Scripture we find that evil spirits always would beg Jesus not to torment them: "And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” (Matt. 8:29).

Jesus said these spirits walk through dry places seeking rest (Matt. 12:43). In the vision I saw this main demon walking through a dry place. Jesus said they'll try to get back into the place they came out of if that person will let them.

That's why it's so important, when dealing with demons in the lives of Christians, to take time to get the Word of God into people. If we don't, we'll do them a worse injustice than if we hadn't ministered to them at all. They might wind up eight times worse than what they were! I've seen that happen.

Watch What You Read

I remember the second year we had school here, a man called from another state because he needed help. He had been head of a psychology department in a leading university, but was now retired. He had taught criminal psychology. In his studies on the subject, he had read classified books on deviant sexual behavior among criminals.

He wasn't a Christian at the time, and as he had studied about people who are motivated by the devil, the devil got in him. He had gone out and molested little children. (That's the reason you need to be careful what you read. The devil can get into you through a book.)

He told me that when he first retired, he hadn't read those books. He and his wife had gotten saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit, and for two years he hadn't had any problems. But he still kept the books, and eventually he got back to reading them. So by not staying in the Word and by reading about the sexual criminal again, he yielded to the devil and molested more little children. His wife found out about it and filed for divorce.

The man said to me, "Brother Hagin, that thing just got hold of me. I didn't want to do that. I know how I'll wind up; I'll wind up killing a child."

As he was talking, I discerned by the Spirit of God that three demons were involved. I said, "Now, I can cast those things out of you. There are three demons. I know that exactly. I'll tell you their names. But it won't do a bit of good unless you do something."

Somebody said something one time that really registered with me, and I have never forgotten it. He said, "It's not what you do that counts. It's what you do afterwards." Just stop and think about that. In the long run that's true. I've seen people who did good things, but they did them with the wrong motive. Afterwards they bragged on themselves, the devil got hold of them, and they backslid. I've seen people who did wrong and knew it, but afterwards they repented and were mightily used of God.

You see, it's not what you do or have done that counts.

It's what you do afterwards. It's not what you do in that room where you're being delivered of devils that's going to count in the long run; it's what you do afterwards. What are you going to do after they're gone?

We need to cover this whole field and not get carried away with casting out devils. You really might do a person an injustice to cast the devil out of him. You might do him more harm than good. If he doesn't do the right thing afterwards, that one spirit will go out and get seven more, and the last state of that man will be worse than his beginning!

So I told this man, "I know what the spirits are. I'll cast them out of you. I know I can do it. And as long as you are here with me, I can keep them out of you. But when you get away from here, I can't control the situation." (I've experienced this again and again in my life, not only with demons, but with sickness. I can control the situation as long as the person is under my authority, in my domain.)

I said, "There's no use of my casting the spirits out of you and getting you delivered unless you're going to do something. Number one, you're going to have to leave those books alone. I'd encourage you to empty your library and burn them. Don't read one of them. And get in the Bible. Study the Word of God. Get filled up. Don't let the devil come back and find your house empty, swept, and garnished."

You see, when he had gotten saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit, God was blessing him, and he left the books alone. But he didn't get the Bible in him. So the devil came back and found him empty, and that same devil started acting up and threw him again. A person can get saved, but if he's not going to walk with God, read the Bible, go to church, and fellowship with fellow Christians, he'll never amount to anything. He'll wind up backslidden. It's what you do afterwards that counts.

I talked to this professor for about an hour and 45 minutes, cast those things out of him, and sent him on his way. About a year later, he and his wife came to our prayer seminar. They were back together, smiling. He said, "I haven't had a bit of trouble. Praise God, I did just what you said to do. I'm staying in the Word, and we're just fine." You see, he did something about it.

But if a person allows them, the demons will try to return to the place they came out of. Many times I have seen this happen.

Jesus told me that they will then stay in that person until they're discerned and cast out again, or until that person dies. When the person dies, they'll leave that body and try to get into another body. Evidently, in the incident related in Mark 5, this is what happened to those spirits in the swine. The spirits left because the swine died.

Spirits Indwell Many

Jesus said this will go on and on and on; thus, we have the same spirits here today that were here when Jesus was here. There's no telling how many people they've indwelt.

There is a book called The Challenging Counterfeit. The man who wrote it was a Full Gospel minister in England. But he had been, for 19 years, a spiritualist pastor. As a spiritualist, he thought he had all the gifts of the Spirit operating in his life. He would even prophesy and operate in the supernatural realm. His group would sing songs about the blood, but when the power of the blood was mentioned, they would get agitated.

Some of these spirits would come and take hold of them and talk to people. The spirits would tell them things they knew about historical events, for they had indwelt people earlier.

The spirit realm is real. I held a meeting once for a preacher friend of mine in Texas. He told me that when he was 36 his first wife died and left him with five children. This was in Depression days and preachers didn't take vacations then. But after his wife died, the church members told him to go on a vacation because he needed to get away.

The church board gave him several hundred dollars and he was going to take 30 days and just see America. He went to Denver and got a room in a hotel. On a Saturday night he was walking along a street when he saw an old theater building. A sign outside said they had services at 7:30 on Sunday nights.

He didn't know where else to go, so on Sunday night he rushed down to this old theater. When he got inside he found the place full. On the platform was a baby grand piano, but there was no pulpit. He knew that Pentecostal people, back in those days, didn't have pianos like that.

Soon a woman in an evening gown came out. She sat down at the piano and began playing "Rock of Ages." She played for a while and then a man dressed in a tuxedo and a tall hat came out. He walked up to the piano, pulled his hat off, and started singing "Rock of Ages."

My preacher friend said he couldn't figure it out. Then they turned all the lights out except a spotlight on this couple. She played, and he sang two verses of "Rock of Ages." When they got to the third verse, the woman disappeared into thin air, but the piano kept on playing, and the man sang the third verse through. The minister said he sat there with his eyes bulging.

When the man finished singing, he walked right up to this Full Gospel minister and said he had a message for him. He told him his wife had died recently. (How could the man know that? Because the devil does know some things.) He told him his wife's spirit was there. He said he had a message for him.

My friend confirmed the fact that his wife had died, but said she was in heaven; she wasn't there with them. He also said he didn't believe this man had a message from her. This is exactly what this preacher should have told him.

How did this man know all this? My friend was a stranger to him, but the devil knows some things. The man asked him if he refused to accept the message, and my friend told him again that his wife was not there. He told him she had been a Christian who had died talking in tongues and praising the Lord. He told him she was in heaven.

If my friend had listened to him, there's no doubt in my mind that the man would have told him something that only my friend knew. It would have been supernatural. But the man walked back up the aisle and my friend got up and left.

That happened whether you believe it or not. I believe God can top whatever the devil does. We don't have to mess around with fortune tellers, soothsayers, astrologers, or anybody else. We have the Word of God and, as the Spirit wills, the gifts of the Spirit.

Chapter 2

Ministering to the Oppressed

The devil is either directly or indirectly behind all sickness and disease, but that doesn't mean there is always the literal presence of a spirit there. The Bible differentiates between healing the sick and casting out devils.

On the other hand, there are cases of the literal presence of a devil or demon who causes that physical condition and is enforcing and keeping it there.

Peter said, preaching to Cornelius and his household in Acts 10:38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were OPPRESSED of the devil. ”

Here Peter tells us that sickness is satanic oppression. It is true that in some cases a spirit has to be dealt with before a person can be delivered. That does not mean that person is demon possessed, but it does mean his body is oppressed by a spirit.

I'm thoroughly convinced that a number of different ailments can be dealt with only by dealing with a spirit. Unless that spirit is dealt with, you can anoint people with oil and lay hands on their heads until you've worn every hair off, but you still won't get results! Sometimes there's more than healing involved.

At a meeting in East Texas several years ago, a man came forward in the healing line saying he had stomach ulcers. I asked him if he were a Christian, and he said he was a member of that church.

I told him he could be a member of that church or a thousand others, but that wouldn't make him a Christian. I asked him if he had been born again. (That is the thing that makes one a Christian.) He told me he knew he was a child of God.

I asked him how long he had needed healing. He answered that he'd needed it for some time. He said he had been in every healing meeting in America and everybody had prayed for him. (In fact, I think I'd prayed for the man, but had gotten no results.)

This time when I laid my hands on him, I immediately perceived that his body was oppressed by a spirit. I commanded the spirit to come out of him. (Not out of his spirit, but out of his body, because he was a born-again believer.)

I knew in my spirit that the evil spirit had left, and I told him to go home and eat a T-bone steak. He informed me he hadn't eaten anything solid for 18 months. He'd only eaten baby food and some other very soft food. But he came back before the week was over and told me he was eating everything. He had gone back to the doctors and they had x-rayed him, but they couldn't find anything wrong with him.

I wouldn't tell you every case of ulcers has to be treated that way, but when evil spirits oppress people physically, they must be dealt with.

Let me explain here a little about the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Remember, Jesus told me that what is known as discerning of spirits would operate in my life when I was in the Spirit. That doesn't mean I can push a button and operate it. This is where people have missed it. They think it worked that way with the apostles, and they think they can work the gifts when they want to. But it can't be done; it will get people in trouble.

I started a revival the last Sunday night of December 1952 at a Full Gospel church in Tyler, Texas.

I was putting some things in my motel room when a knock came on the door and the pastor came in to talk with me. He told me he trusted that his niece would receive her healing during this meeting. She had been diagnosed as having cancer of the left lung and had been unable to take care of her two small children.

In fact, by this time she was skin and bones and was bedfast. She had refused exploratory surgery, saying she was going to trust God, and if she died, she died. Doctors had said the cancer had now spread to both lungs, and she was beyond medical help.

In those days, we had healing services on Tuesday and Friday nights. The pastor's niece was brought to the Tuesday night service. I laid hands on her and prayed, but got no results. Friday night they brought her again, and still there were no results. The second week they brought her again on Tuesday. Still there were no results. Friday night we had another healing service, and still there were no results.

At the last minute the pastor decided he wanted the meeting to continue another week, so I agreed. I have thought so many times, What if we had not gone on?

Tuesday night of the third week, this girl was brought to the service again. When I reached out and laid my hand on her forehead, I was in the Spirit. It seemed like a white cloud came down over me, enveloping me. Every person and pew disappeared. The altar disappeared and it seemed as if the young woman and I were standing there in that white cloud. No one else could see what I saw nor hear what I heard, but they heard me talking.

I saw a demon hanging onto the outside of her body. It was like a little monkey hanging onto a tree limb. It looked like the pictures we've seen of little elves. It was oppressing her body, but was not in her spirit.

I dealt with the evil spirit oppressing this girl. I told him he was going to have to leave her. He said he knew he would have to, but no one else heard him say that. I then told him to come out of her body in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When I said that, he turned loose and fell down to the floor. He lay there and whimpered. He shook like a little dog who had been whipped. He whined and kept saying that he sure didn't want to leave. I commanded him to leave the premises in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he went down the aisle and out the front door.

The young woman lifted her hands and began to praise God. Almost instantly she was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues.

She returned to the last clinic where she had been treated and asked them to x-ray her lungs again. They did, and they said the cancer was gone. She testified in a service that the doctors asked her what had happened. They thought maybe she had been under the care of some other doctor. But she told them exactly what I had seen and done.

The doctors said they would give her an affidavit that she'd had cancer and that now it was gone. They said they didn't know by what method it had left, but "more power to this fellow who has the answer." They knew they didn't have the answer.

I believe God has the answer, not I. If I had been operating the gift, I'd have done this the first night the girl came. But if the Spirit doesn't give it to me, I'm helpless. I teach, preach, and minister the best I can, but I do not operate or manifest gifts of the Holy Spirit at will. The Bible says, "But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will” (1 Cor. 12:11).

This is not the only way to deal with cancer, however. In 1956 I was preaching at a Full Gospel church in Denver. Although we had two services a day, we had no healing services. I never laid hands on anyone. But a woman from Pueblo who had cancer heard that I was going to be there. She intended to ask me to pray for her, but as soon as she heard me teach she decided to put what she heard into practice.

Two years later my wife and I went to Pueblo to the Full Gospel church this woman attended. Her pastor had contacted me in the meantime and had told me she was healed. Her doctor had told her that sometimes cancer goes into remission, but that if it didn't reoccur again within two years, she was free of it. The two years were up during this meeting, and she went in for her final checkup. Her doctor ran tests on her and said every test proved negative. She testified in the meeting about it.

She said that after the checkup she was waiting for the test results when the nurse came in and asked her if she belonged to one of those churches that believe in divine healing. She said she did, and the nurse began to cry. The nurse told her that she and the doctor already had figured that out. They said they knew God had healed her because it was a miracle.

There was no discerning of spirits here. She wasn't prayed for. She just received healing through her own faith in the Word of God.

I was preaching in June 1952 in Clovis, New Mexico, holding a tent meeting for a Full Gospel church. We held the day services in the church and the night services in the tent. I had held a meeting in the church in 1951, and six months later I got a letter from the pastor telling me there was a certain woman in the church who had cancer. She had been to one of the largest clinics in our nation for treatment. The doctors there said she had six months at the most to live.

When we came for the meeting in June 1952, two of those six months were gone. She was brought by ambulance to two services on a stretcher and was in another room with a speaker in it. No one knew she was there. I never knew it. I never prayed for her. She went twice and heard two Bible lessons on faith. And she put those lessons into practice and was healed.

I later received a letter saying she was heeded, had been back to the clinic, and the doctors had said she was healed. She had had cancer. But now she was well. You cannot limit God to moving any one way.

In December 1956 I was holding a meeting in a Full Gospel church in Modesto, California, and the pastor told me about a 22-year-old man in the Air Force who had cancer of both lungs.

He was sent home with full disability and had to go periodically to the veterans' hospital in the San Francisco Bay area to have his lungs drained. Since he had returned home, he and his wife had gotten saved, but he hadn't received the baptism.

After the pastor told the story, I prayed for the young man, laying my hands on him, but I knew in my spirit that we hadn't made the connection. (You can tell when people believe in God. You can lay hands on some people and it's like laying hands on a door knob. But you can lay hands on other people and it's like getting hold of a live wire. They believe God.)

I knew there was no response from this young man. I didn't tell him that, because I didn't want to talk doubt and unbelief. I prayed for him twice. But one night I invited all believers to come and pray around the altar. I was walking among them, laying hands on them. Suddenly the Spirit of God came upon me, anointing me, and led me to this young man. I walked over and laid hands on him, not knowing what I was going to do. (Sometimes I like to go to church to find out just what I'm going to do!)

I began to prophesy. The prophecy said he was healed. Then God said He had a place for the young man in His kingdom. He said He had a work for him to do. When I finished prophesying, he received the Holy Spirit almost instantly.

Six months later we stopped by this church to preach again. The pastor told me this young man was perfectly well. After the holidays he had gone back to the hospital to be checked and they had kept him for five days, running every kind of test on him. They said they couldn't understand why the cancer was gone.

God is bigger than cancer!

My niece had an operation when she was 16. The surgery involved her female organs. When she was 18, she had another operation, followed by a third one when she was 20. In the meantime, she had gotten married.

When she was 22, doctors told her husband she had cancer. A look at the records revealed that her other operations had been for cancer, but they hadn't told her. The cancer had spread all through the lower part of her body and up into her stomach.

The doctors wanted to fly her to Walter Reed Hospital because her husband was in the service. They felt that would be her last hope. They said if they could take two-thirds of her stomach, she might live another two years. That was the best they could offer. We all prayed.

I was preaching in Pennsylvania at the time, and one night right in the middle of my sermon, in the Spirit, miles and miles away, I dealt with that evil spirit and commanded it to leave her.

When the time came for her to fly to the hospital, doctors decided they would postpone her operation a day or two. Five times they postponed it. Finally the day came for her to leave, and the doctors told her to sit down. She thought they were going to tell her it was too late to help her. One of them told her that because they had detected a small change in her, they had been running a number of tests before she left. Every test had proved negative, and they couldn't find a trace of cancer in her body.

We live in a day when these kinds of attacks are prevalent. But we needn't be afraid. God is greater than all. We do not need discerning of spirits to deal with these things, but sometimes it helps. God can move and people can know the truth. The truth can set them free. The Spirit of God also can operate through prophecy without discerning of spirits. Let's rejoice in what God is doing. That's what counts.

In September 1958 a man came in the healing line in Pueblo, Colorado. I asked him what was wrong with him and he said he was nervous and couldn't sleep. (Later I learned there was more to his problem than just being nervous. I learned he had been laid off his job and was about to be committed to an institution. He was under the care of a psychiatrist.)

After I prayed for him, he returned to his seat. I prayed for a few more people and then happened to look his way. When I did, I was in the Spirit. I saw an evil spirit sitting on his right shoulder. It had its arm around the man's head in an armlock. You can see what that denoted. I told the man to come over to where I was. No one else saw anything. But I both saw and heard the evil spirit. I told the evil spirit to leave the man's body in the Name of Jesus Christ.

When I said that, the demon turned loose and fell down on the floor. When he did, the young man hollered out loud and said that it was gone. He said it felt like an iron band had snapped from around his head. He felt the release. I told the spirit to leave and it did.

If it had been up to me, I would have done this the first time I laid hands on him. But unless one has the manifestation of the Spirit, he can't minister this way. No one can turn the gift on and off when he wants to.

The Bible says for us to wait on something that comes from God. I've been around people who can see a vision anytime they want to. Some see two and three every day, but they're just dreaming up something. They just think they see something.

I can't operate this gift when I want to. The manifestation is given to every man as the Spirit wills, not as man wills. I'd like for it to be a little more frequent sometimes. We can minister certain ways and help people this way, but if we don't have this, we can still help them with the Word of God. That's the reason we constantly preach and teach the Word of God— because it builds faith. Then we have these manifestations as the Spirit wills and we thank God for them. But, thank God, His Word always works.

In one church my wife and I pastored in Texas, there was a woman about 82 years old. She had been in the hospital in my hometown of McKinney, suffering with cancer of the stomach, and was finally sent home to die.

I went to visit her at her daughter's home, and as I talked with her she said she was old enough to die and she wanted me to leave her alone so she could die. (You're not going to get people healed when they think they're going to die.)

I told her that wasn't right. I told her to let God heal her before she died. She told me she had lost all confidence in divine heeding—and she was an old-time Pentecostal saint. It was divine healing, in fact, that had brought her out of another church into the Pentecostal church back in 1917.

She mentioned a certain pastor who hadn't gotten healed. I told her that didn't have a thing in the world to do with it. I told her we weren't reaching all 3,000 people in the city for salvation, but we thanked God for those we could reach. We didn't give up because we couldn't reach them all. I told her I didn't know why those people didn't get healed, but that I wasn't going to question God. I told her healing still belonged to her.

I read to her from the Bible on the subject of healing, laid my hands on her, and asked God to help her not cast away her confidence. She had wasted away to nothing and had suffered much. She could hardly eat anything and was right at death's door.

We had divine healing services every Saturday night in our church. Her family would carry her in and seat her in a large chair with pillows around her. Sometimes she would have a spell and we would think she was dead. Then somehow she would start breathing again. Those were some experiences!

That went on for about six months. We can get faith into people by teaching them, but they also need to get into services where God is moving and manifesting Himself. Smith Wigglesworth said that if God doesn't manifest Himself, it is doubtful whether the Holy Spirit is really there.

One Saturday night this woman was at the service, and as we came to the close, I had a quick vision about her. I saw Grandma, as we all called her, jump out of her chair and start dancing. I looked at her and told her it was her time. I walked down off the platform, laid hands on her and prayed. At the moment nothing happened, but ten minutes later she let out a yell, jumped out of the chair and started dancing. She was healed.

Several years later, when Grandma was 91, my wife and I stopped to visit her. Her daughter said she was away visiting some people and that she was always out running around, so we didn't get to see her.

She died when she was 93, without sickness and disease. She just fell asleep in Jesus. I'm so glad I didn't let her die of that cancer! I've done my best for some others but couldn't help them. Yet God's Word is still true, and the gifts of the Spirit are still real.

Table of Contents

Discerning of Spirits

Ministering to the Oppressed