A lot of Christians think that we have a spirit (often called a soul) and a body, but nothing else. They do not understand that we indeed are a spirit which lives in a body, but also has a soul. Our soul is our mind, will and emotions. These things are not born again when a person accepts Christ, and can remain a dwelling place for unclean desires, weaknesses, and yes, unclean spirits. Now while the Bible does use the words spirit and soul interchangeably, it does make a clear distinction between the two:

Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

We also find other passages in the Bible which discern a difference between our spirit and our soul:

1 Thessalonians 5:23, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now for some good stuff…

Did you know that if you accepted Jesus and you only had a spirit, then all your dirt and unclean desires, lustful thinking, bondages, weaknesses, addictions, etc. would go all at once, because the Bible says that we are a new creature if we are in Christ?

2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

This is because your spirit man is born again the moment you accept Christ, all things become new and the old things pass away. However, our minds, wills and emotions (known as our soul) are not born again, but transformed as we renew our minds according to the Word of God, turn away from sinful ways, receive the healing touch of God in our lives, and receive deliverance from any unclean spirits that have taken residence in us.

This is why believers do not shed all their sinful, evil, and dark bondages (thoughts, weaknesses, struggles, etc.) the moment they accept Christ, and furthermore, this is why there may be deliverance needed from unclean spirits in a person’s life long after they’ve accepted Christ.

That really depends on the bondage and the spirits involved. In a simple answer, yes, a believer can drive out a demon over the phone. In a more practical aspect, there are many downsides to phone deliverance. For example, the minister cannot use symbolism without the person’s involvement (and what if they are manifesting a demon?). The demon can react violently and there’s nobody there to keep things under control. The demon can manifest and hang up on the minister, and the person is left alone in a trance. My mother did a phone deliverance where the person was thrown into a trance and wouldn’t respond. Finally we had to send angels to assist because the person was 300 miles away.

In-person deliverance also allows the minister to see the person’s face and eyes, and has a good idea of what is going on. Over the phone, there’s a lot that can happen that the minister wouldn’t even know about it. If the person is about to harm themselves, the minister may not even know about it, whereas if he was there, he could do something.

I’m not saying it won’t work! But there are some considerable downsides to weigh out.

This is such a powerful subject because it is the #1 argument the anti-deliverance protesters use. They claim that the moment you accept Christ, that all your demons go away automatically. One illustration that somebody recently gave me was, “When you walk into a room and turn the light on, the whole room becomes light!” My reply was, “But what if there’s a desk in that room, and under that desk is some darkness?” Let me ask you this, when you accepted Jesus, did you automatically shed all of your weaknesses? Bondages? Addictions? Sinful fleshly desires? If you struggled with lust, did it all go away the moment you accepted Jesus? If not, then did your light not get turned on? How can the light of Christ be turned on in a person’s life yet darkness still remains in their soul (mind, will and emotions)? Apparently light can dwell with darkness!

The truth is that we are composed of 3 parts, a physical body, a spirit (the real you) and a soul (mind, will and emotions). When you are born again, your spirit is made new, and old things have passed away. For the Bible says:

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Cor 5:17)

But how can a believer still carry over bondages (strongholds, demons, etc.) if they are made new and old things have passed away? The answer to this is simple… our souls are NOT born again! Though our spirits are new, our souls are not. We are told in the Bible to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (see Romans 12:2), and even Paul said that there was indeed evil present in him (see Romans 7:21). How could Paul have evil present in him if he had the Holy Spirit and was a new creature in Christ? I thought light could not dwell with darkness!

Some might argue that the fleshly kind of evil is different than evil spirits. So are we now trying to say that some kinds of evil can remain in the presence of God, and others can’t? This is a bunch of hogwash!

If all people had to do was accept Jesus and all the darkness left their lives, there would be no point in casting out demons. Why put a patch on somebody’s demonic problem if they are unwilling to accept Jesus anyways? Jesus said that if we cast a demon from a non-believer, it comes back with 7 more even more evil spirits. Is that what you want to happen to those whom you drive demons from? That doesn’t make any sense. Jesus said clearly that deliverance was the Children’s bread, referring to those in covenant with God (see Matthew 15:26).

A person seeking deliverance from a generational bondage may think all that is needed is to break the curse that was passed down to them form their ancestors. This may be true with some cases, but don’t rely on simply breaking the curse as a means to end the bondage! A curse is simply a permission slip for an unclean spirit to enter or take advantage of a person. The spirits operating through the curse are what causes the actual problem in that person’s life. The curse simply allowed them to enter or gain access.

Many times, it is not enough to simply break a generational curse, it is also vital to cast out the spirits operating behind that curse. If you take somebody with a generational spirit of anger, and simply break the curse (which may have already been broken - see my teaching on GreatBibleStudy.com web site for the teaching on Generational Curses), chances are the bondage will remain. This is because the spirit causing the problem has not automatically left. I have a teaching on the GreatBibleStudy.com website entitled, “Why cast out demons?” which explains that demons do NOT leave once their legal grounds are broken up. It is therefore vital to cast out the spirits operating behind a curse!

Many times we see a family where the parents are overweight, and the children are overweight. Most Christians in America would attribute this to the children being raised in that environment (which can certainly play a role), while some may say that the children were simply suffering from a generational curse of gluttony (which is not impossible), but many times it goes deeper… since addictions usually are a result of escapism, there is likely something that has been working under the surface in that person’s life… many times that bondage is handed down from generation to generation, thus causing the same addiction in the child’s life as well. This is generational, but there’s more to it than what some may think.

That is why it is so important to look for the true root of the bondage when walking the person through deliverance!

This is the single most common reasoning that is given to somebody who asks if a Christian can have a demon. While it sounds reasonable, they are avoiding the fact that sin and bondage can exist in the life of a believer… which is darkness in itself!

How can a person who is born of incorruptible seed (see 1 Peter 1:23), washed with the Blood of Christ (see Revelations 1:5), justified (see Romans 3:24) and given the righteousness of God (see Romans 3:22)… still be in bondage to sin or continue to commit it? Even Paul realized that there was indeed evil present in Him (see Romans 7:21)! How can this be? When you are born again, your soul (mind, will and emotions) and physical body are NOT born again. God’s Word tells us that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (see Romans 12:2) and that through the washing of the Word (see Ephesians 5:26), He will prepare the bride (that’s us) to be without spot nor wrinkle nor any other blemish for Jesus’ return… apparently Christ’s bride can have blemishes before His return!

In answer to the question, “Can a Christian have areas of their life in bondage and darkness?” the answer is clearly YES. This is due to the fact that we consist of a spirit (the real us), a soul (our mind, will and emotions) and a body (physical ’shell’). While demons cannot own us or be united with our spirits, they can indeed dwell within our souls and bodies. I have more on this topic in my free e-book, “A biblical approach to the ministry of deliverance.”

Many times during a deliverance, you will encounter more than one demon. Often there are other similar or related spirits that must also be driven out. Let’s take for example, if you find a spirit of hate, you may very well find a spirit of murder, anger, revenge, rage, and so fourth. If you find a spirit of murder, you may also stumble across a spirit of death, suicide, etc. There may also be a doorkeeper, which is the spirit that is responsible for opening the door to the other demons and for keeping them in place. For example, a spirit of fear may be a doorkeeper, and has opened the door to a spirit of dread, anxiety, worry, panic, and so fourth.

Keep this in mind when casting out demons. Always be on the lookout for additional spirits that may need to be cast out. These things will work together to bring much torment and bondage in that person’s life! One technique used among deliverance ministers, is binding the spirits together to their leader (often there will be a leader in the group) so that he can cast the entire group out in one sweep.

Perhaps one of the most common mistakes I’ve seen in this type of ministry, is failing to find out and clean up the root of the problem before attempting to cast out the demons. For example, a young girl makes a vow (bound her soul) never to let anybody get close to her again, and then years later a deliverance pastor attempts to cast out a spirit out of her which continually puts up a wall between her and others to prevent meaningful relationships from forming. There’s a good chance that the pastor won’t even get the spirit out because the legal grounds were never broken up, and even if he did get it out, there’s a very real chance that it will return because it has a right to be there.

Another example is when a person has a bondage to addiction of some kind. The root of many addictions in either an unmet need or an indulgence in escapism in effort to escape reality (or projected reality). Let’s say a woman has been divorced and was hurt in the process, and she turns to excessive eating in effort to ease the pain, thus turning to escapism to suppress the pain and wound. In a moral sense, she is harming her body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and a spirit of addiction will gladly take her up on this opportunity to destroy the body which God has given her. Years later, she seeks deliverance from this spirit, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to budge (even after persistently commanding the spirit to come out in Jesus’ name), or the minister is able to get the spirit(s) out, but they keep returning. My first question is, were those wounds from the divorce ever truly healed? Or were they suppressed? Could it be that those wounds simply remained her the darkness of her soul, and are still infected? It would be a good idea in such a case, to make sure that the wound has been opened up (bringing it out into the open and before the Lord) and healed (stop trying to hold on to or justify the wound and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to them). Once that root (that which has brought on this bondage in the first place) is cleaned up, then it is time to move forward and begin casting out the demons.

When you clean up the root of the problem in a deliverance, you are giving the enemy no excuse to return. You are enabling that person to come into complete freedom in that area of their life, and maintain that freedom for the rest of their life.

Escapism is a form of living outside reality or trying to escape the pressure that reality (or projected reality) has put upon a person. Examples of escapism is when a person turns to food (excessive eating), alcohol, drugs, pornography, etc. in order to suppress the feelings they are experiencing. The danger in doing this, is that you can open the door to a spirit of addiction and relating spirits that can bind you to that escapism. If you are doing drugs, excessive eating, etc., then you are not taking care of your body (the temple of the Holy Spirit - 1 Corinthians 16:9), thus telling unclean spirits that you really don’t care about what God’s given you and they are more than happy to take you up on the opportunity to aid in the destruction of your body.

Suppressing our problems is not the answer; true healing takes place when the root of the problem is brought into the light and treated. For example, if it’s an emotional wound, then we need to stop holding onto that wound (infection grows in the darkness of our souls), and open it up to the Lord, and make yourself available for His healing to take place.

Addictions can also be rooted in an unmet need, such as a young boy not receiving an adequate supply of healthy love from his parents can cause him to seek a different type of love and picks up his first pornography magazine. Then there’s generational curses which can also open a person up to addictive spirits.

Addictions are usually birthed because a person is trying to fill a void or need with something else. If you want to be set free from an addiction, then your first step is to find out what void that addiction was trying to fill. First make sure that void is cleaned up, and once the root of the problem is taken care of, then it’s time to seek deliverance from the spirits that are fueling or binding you to that addiction.

Perhaps the best person to tell when a spirit has left, is the individual to whom is receiving ministry. A manifestation may take place when the demon is coming out, but it is certainly not a rule of thumb in determining if the spirit has departed. When walking a person through deliverance, I will often ask them how they are feeling, if they are experiencing pressure in a part of their body (chest, stomach, mind, etc.), confusing, unusual feelings (mental or physical) or anything else. Have they felt a release from that spirit? If they feel some release, but it’s not completely, then there are likely other similar spirits that must be driven out as well. I like to work closely with the person as they are often your best guide as to how things are going.

Once a demon leaves, there is usually a feeling of release or relief from their bondage. This is not always the case, perhaps in a case of epilepsy, where they may not be able to tell until days later because their seizures have stopped. The Holy Spirit can also give the minister a feeling of confirmation that the demon has left.