After returning from a recent class on Exercising Spiritual
Authority where we witnessed many demons cast out of people, my good buddy Ed
Murphy asked me how it went. My response stirred the fellow spiritual warrior in
his soldier soul when I said, “Nothing seems quite as exhilarating as hearing a
God-damned demon shrieking and screaming when they are cast out.” We both belly
laughed as we remembered the times we have tormented demons and they came out
of people kicking and screaming. We are not the first ones to experience such
exhilarating excitement. It is a biblical fact that demons often scream when
they are expelled.
For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who
were possessed. Acts
8:7a
It is interesting to note that it says the unclean spirits were the ones crying out—not the
people they came out of. They are crying because they are being tormented and
are in pain and agony.
In my prayer time following the above conversation, I was
thanking the Lord for the power and authority to do such exploits. His response
is still echoing in my head. He asked, “Has it occurred to you that I like to
hear them scream too?” Actually, I had not considered that concept before; but
now that I know He likes it, be assured that I will give Him some enjoyment in
the near future. Why should He not like it? And why shouldn’t we like it as
well? After all, it is evidence that the tormentors are being tormented.
Along the line of tormenting demons, not long after Jesus (Yeshua)
walked out of the desert, He went to Capernaum where a demon reacted to His
presence by crying out, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of
Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
(Mark 1:24). The Luke 8:28 account of Jesus casting the demons out of the madman
of the Gadarenes says, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High
God? I beg You, do not torment me!”
The demons cried out when they saw Jesus because they knew He
was an expert demon hunter and they feared His presence. The demon asked Jesus,
“Are you come to torment us before our time [of torment]?” Though Jesus did not
qualify a response to the question, He demonstrated His answer. Not only did He
cast them out, but He also sent them into a herd of pigs where they met a
gruesome end by stampeding off the cliff and plunging into the water to drown.
The result? The demons were left with no house or job. Jesus did not answer the
demon’s question by saying yes, but the action proved the answer was and
is—yes! Absolutely yes. He made it positively clear that He had indeed come to
torment them before their time.
We often think of demons as the tormentors, but how often do
we consider that we can torment them by casting them out of their house? When a
demon is cast out, he is not asked to leave—he is thrown out against his will.
Demons lose their homes and jobs all in one violent action
of expulsion. They scream because they are being driven out against their will,
just as they have driven their victims against their will. How exciting to
consider that we can torment the tormentors and inflict punishment on the
punishers. Even more so, hearing their screams is incredibly, spiritually
satisfying.
The Bible testifies that a time is coming when all demons
will be chained in the pit with Satan for a thousand years and then afterward
be cast into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. That is their time of
promised torment. Yet, until then, those of us who love to torment the
tormentors can enjoy the precursor of them being cast into the lake of fire by
casting them out of their houses NOW.
