After encountering several demons, the best defense against demons I've found.

by Vivian Gendernalik

This technique God gave me in a dream over thirty years ago with an ominous feel to the dream it was to prepare me for an appointment with evil.

That is exactly what happened a few weeks later in what turned out to be my first official face off with a demon, an encounter I relate in Chapter 4 of my book, "Born In A War Between Dark And Light." 

I later learned when I became a born-again Christian that this is a prime principal in the Bible to beating demons

This technique is to wield the sword of the Word. 

However, wielding it alone is not enough if you are not a real believer or are a lukewarm believer. This too is a Bible principal as Scripture relates in Acts 19 a particular event when some Jewish exorcists, as well as 7 sons of a Jewish priest, thought to cast out demons in the same manner Paul did, quoting his name and the name of Jesus as they did so, expecting to have the same success.

"13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches." 14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?" Acts 19:13-15, NKJV

So here we have a demon not at all ruffled by this group of determined exorcists, men who specialized in casting out demons, or at least claimed to. I say claimed, because why would they feel moved to try yet another technique, rather than stick with what they knew. That they did 'borrow' someone else's technique shows what they had been using had not such a good track record, even if it was their specialty. 

Here was a man named Paul, who was not an exorcist by trade as they were, but he had a method that never failed, and had earned such a reputation that it made these traditional Jewish exorcists decide to use what they knew was a Christian method based on Jesus, the power of his name.

Yet they also showed they had no understanding how to wield that power, what it required to work for them, thinking it was independent of any participation from them in the faith. The term for that is 'clueless'. Pretty much they were setting themselves up for a real big joke on them. 

Honestly, this is one of the places in the Bible I would have liked to have reserved ringside seats in the front yard of that house, bought a big tub of movie-theatre popcorn and a jumbo Sprite with me through the time machine, and get comfy and wait for the knock-out drag-out show rivaling the best old Western bar fights with a comedy end of fleeing men stripped of their clothes, in all their ridiculousness of appearance to their varying body types not necessarily Gym-honed, tumbling over one another to get out of that house, wounded in body, spirit and pride. Now that's show time!

"The man who had the evil spirit in him attacked them with such violence that he overpowered them all. They ran away from his house, wounded and with their clothes torn off." Acts 19:16 NKJV

For certain these men were super fortunate it had been only one demon they had come against, or they might not have lived, especially if they had encountered the exceedingly fierce demons possessing those two men in the country of the Gergesenes in Matthew 8, demons described as so violent they had kept anyone from passing that way.

However, they did earn a biblical spot in the permanent hall of Scriptural-Error Shame, forever memorialized as examples of men having no understanding of the faith that let Paul stand successfully against the demons he had encountered. From their disastrous attempt we know that wielding the name of the Lord and quoting some Scriptures is not enough, without actually being a true Christian, and that means a believer from the heart who believes to faithfulness and is a doer and not just a hearer of the teachings of Jesus.  

We have this colorful, memorable result how proclaiming the name of Jesus in this faithless way, coming out of the mouth of unbelievers, had no effect on the demon they were trying to cast out, and in addition backfired incredibly embarrassing to all of them as this demon ended up beating them so terribly in the process, that although it had ripped their clothes off of them during the violent scuffle, they had run out of that house for their lives, too terrified from its power and violence for them to worry about their modesty and public humiliation that had resulted, same as one would not think twice to run to the street without the chance to cover up in the middle of a house fire or sudden flood. 

Tags: Demon Warfare, Tip, Demons, Spiritual Warfare, Exorcist, Sword of Truth, Power of His Name, Jesus, Evil Spirit, Fierce Demons, True Christians, Faith