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This is not the message I sat down to write. Partway through, the Holy Spirit hijacked it and made it something else. I don't want to upset you, but like Paul, I also don't want you to be ignorant (1 Corinthians 12:1). This is a rather long message, but it would be an injustice not to share what He gave me. Much like Amos, I was no preacher nor writer but a fixer of computers and a painter of houses. But the Lord took me aside and said, go tell my people what I shall give you (Amos 7:14-16). So hear the word of the Lord:

The Lord knows all. Nothing is hidden from Him, for there is an unseen spiritual realm all around us. In both the Old and New Testaments, the word used for Spirit means breath. This means that the Holy Spirit inhabits the air around us. We breathe Him in and out, just as God breathed life into Adam and Jesus Christ breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples:

(Genesis 2:7 NKJV) And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

(John 20:22 NKJV) And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."

This means that the Holy Spirit can be with you everywhere you go. We sometimes think that God is with us at church on Sunday, and because of that, we are on our best behavior. Then we go to work on Monday and become satan incarnate to those around us, but the Holy Spirit is there as well. He sees all.

He is with us in the bathroom, while watching television, at our computers, while sleeping, while at work, in the hospital, and jail. Is it any wonder that He knows everything about us? How could He not?

The Apostle Paul said that we are surrounded by a "great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1). Oh my, there are going to be some awkward moments when we get to heaven. "Uh, I thought I was alone..." Nope, you had an audience of thousands. It was standing room only as people squeezed in to get a better view of you! What happens in Vegas didn't stay in Vegas...

It's okay. We are all human, and humans tend to do things that humans have always done. But the Holy Spirit wants to make you a better one. So, He will move into a sinful person and begin to improve them from the inside out. The Spirit of the Lord slowly transforms us into the likeness of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).

During this same time, the Holy Spirit will begin to evict other spirits from His new house. When we first accept Jesus Christ as our Lord, we are saved (Romans 10:9-10). But we are not usually instantly delivered of all of our bondages and vices. I grew up with people who would get saved at a revival meeting on Sunday and be drunk and beating their wives again on Monday. They were just a saved drunk now. The Lord brings balance to our lives, which in turn will automatically bring deliverance.

(2 Corinthians 3:17 NKJV) Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Spirit means "breath." Liberty means "freedom." Wherever the Spirit of the Lord goes, He brings freedom. As you follow His gentle prompting, you will automatically go through deliverance. A large part of Jesus' ministry was deliverance. He taught about it in detail. An interesting thing is that unclean spirits like to hide, but the Holy Spirit will reveal them and push them out of you. The presence of Jesus Christ causes them to manifest. Let's look at a few:

(Mark 1:23–24 NKJV) Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, saying, "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!"

Now, this was a man in their Synagogue, where they worshipped the Lord. Notice that the spirit spoke out of the man in the plural, using words like "us" and "we" to refer to themselves. They often live in groups. They recognized Jesus immediately and began to scream at Him.

(Mark 1:25–27 NKJV) But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!" And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him."

I love that, "What new teaching is this?" Over 2,000 years later, a lot of Christians, when confronted with deliverance, still say, "What new teaching is this?" Evil spirits are fine with you not believing they exist, but they don't like to be homeless and will temporarily even use animals as a host if they have to. There are about twenty specific instances of Jesus casting out "unclean spirits" in the Gospels, and many more with the Apostles. Jesus taught on it:

(Matthew 12:43–45 NKJV) "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first..."

The unclean spirit could not rest while outside a host. He called the man "his house," for he lived inside the man. In this case, the man was delivered but not filled with the Holy Spirit, so at the end of the story, he had eight wicked spirits that came to live there. They turned that man into their pub. Also, apparently, some spirits are more wicked than others. Look at this one:

(Luke 8:26–28 NKJV) Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, "What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!"

(Luke 8:29–33 NKJV) For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness. Jesus asked him, saying, "What is your name?" And he said, "Legion," because many demons had entered him. And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them. Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned.

This man wore no clothes, cut himself with stones, screamed day and night, and lived in the tombs among the dead rather than in a house. He had supernatural strength and could break chains and shackles. He was tormented and self-destructive (Mark 5:5).

Now, the Lord speaks to us personally in ways we can understand. I am a musician, so to get some of the following references, you will need to know this. Most musicians already will. In the movie, "Spinal Tap," Nigel, the band's lead guitarist, proudly shows off his custom-made amplifiers with knobs that go up to eleven instead of the standard ten. When asked why they don’t just make ten louder, he insists, "But these go to eleven... So when they need that little bit of extra oomph, they can crank it to eleven."

The idea of "cranking it to eleven" represents pushing beyond the standard limits and embracing the extreme, which is a key part of today's message. Evil spirits are drawn to extremes. Now, not all spirits come because of extreme sin, as Jesus sometimes casts them out of children (Luke 9:42). It is quite possible that you can inherit them from your parents, for many seem generational.

What exactly is deliverance? Deliverance is the action of being rescued or set free from bondage. The human body is a container for spirits. Our spirit lives there, the Holy Spirit can live there, and so can others. Compulsive, self-destructive behavior, when you feel like you are almost watching yourself do something sinful, can be the presence of an unclean spirit. Just as the Holy Spirit is breathed in, other spirits can be expelled.

What does deliverance look like? Have you ever begun yawning while praying? Bingo. There are also many, many other ways, like coughing, burping, or sneezing. Sylvia and have both had times when we were praying and suddenly became overwhelmingly nauseous, ran to the bathroom, and began projectile vomiting. Afterward, I could tell I had a peace that I didn't have before. It was deliverance from something.

One of the most striking episodes I have personally witnessed, mostly because it happened right behind us, was when we were in an anointed church meeting once with Mahesh Chavda, an evangelist who had been fasting for forty days. The congregation was reciting the Apostle's Creed together when suddenly, a stately, well-dressed, elderly woman right behind us let out a blood-curdling scream of "NOOOOOOOOooooooooo!!!" and fell to the floor and began writhing like a snake in the aisle. Her voice eerily trailed off as the spirit left her body as if it was growing distant and far away, though she was lying on the floor and hadn't moved from the spot. I still remember that scream.

Where do evil spirits come from? It's hard to pinpoint, but they are obviously disembodied spirits from the past who want to find another body to live in today. Derek Prince, who had an amazing deliverance ministry, believed they came from a pre-Adamic race. Since we have dinosaur skeletons that are millions of years old, and they aren't mentioned in the Bible, that isn't too far out there. Our Bible was written for the descendants of Adam, but Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said there is nothing new under the sun. That everything that we have today has already been here in ancient times before us (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10).

What are evil spirits like? It is a strange trait, but most of the lesser spirits I have dealt with seemed to be simple, selfish, and petty. For example, a spirit of alcoholism simply likes to drink and needs a body to drink through, so they are going to choose someone who also likes to drink as a home. If the person merely refuses to drink, the spirit will simply leave on its own and go find someone who will.

It is much the same for drugs, pornography addiction, sex addiction, gluttony, kleptomaniacs, or whatever the vice is, an unclean spirit will want you to crank it up to eleven and have the maximum fun possible. Avoid extremes. Out-of-control, compulsive, self-destructive behavior is often a sign of demonic activity at work. When you are "driven" and can no longer control it.

How do you invite an "unclean" spirit? By cranking it to eleven... It is like spirits see you as a heat signature, much like a mosquito or a snake would. Extreme signatures draw them. Binge drinking or drugs draw spirits that love them. Binge eating draws spirits that love to gorge on food. Surfing porn all night will attract spirits of lust and perversion. Losing control of your temper in a rage will attract spirits of anger, hate, and murder. Intense fear, as you experience in horror movies or roller coasters, will attract spirits that feed on fear. Extreme depression will attract spirits of self-mutilation and suicide. Extremes like these open our spiritual doors. The end result will be like feeding a fire. It wants more, more, more of what you were doing...

A helpful tip is to listen to the Bible, anointed sermons, or praise and worship music, which they cannot stand. If you try to put God first in your life, then simply resist doing what the unclean spirits want to do, and instead do things they dislike, they will usually leave on their own. You won't have to vote them off the island. James said it like this:

(James 4:7 ESV) Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Does this mean I am demon-possessed? No. Possession indicates ownership and a Christian cannot be owned by anyone but Christ. Demonic Oppression is a more accurate description. Can a Christian be under the influence of a demon? Absolutely.

I find it comforting knowing that all spirits are eternal, including ours. Though our bodies age with time, our spirits do not. Your life here is like your school years, preparing you to enter eternity. Knowing that you have a lot more to look forward to than what you see around you today helps put things into proper perspective. You will leave your shell behind. It's beautiful that the Lord gives us a chance, a choice to choose where our spirits will spend eternity. It's up to us.

A couple of ending notes: It is very dangerous to return to something the Lord has delivered you from in the past. I have sadly watched young Christians who start great, clean up, and get off drugs, and then return to them again and again. Eventually, they have a legion as each spirit that leaves returns with more next time. I watched one continue this path until his eyes would turn black, and he would speak using plural words about himself, like "us" and "we," like the spirits above. During a confrontation one night, I would speak the name of Jesus Christ, and his head would spin as if I slapped him. As of yet, he hasn't recovered.

(2 Peter 2:20–22 ESV) For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire."

The longer an unclean spirit lives in a house, the harder it is to get rid of them, though never impossible. As long as the person continues doing what the unclean spirit wants, the spirit has a legal right to be there and will not leave simply because you pray for the person. One of the most difficult spirits to get rid of is self-pity. It is so deceptive and becomes your "friend," the only one who really understands. God will not separate you from your "friends." The person with the unclean spirit must repent, turn from what they are doing, submit to God, and resist the devil; then, the spirit will flee.

To get free, remember the words of James: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7 ESV). And don't crank it to eleven...

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for another day. Please help me see Your Word through Your eyes and past the blinders of traditions of men. I want to live my life to the fullest with You at the very center. I submit my life to You. Help me resist the devil. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!