6 Demonic Spirits Named in the Bible: How to Cast Them Out!
Confronting the unseen realm can be a very messy business.
I have noticed since childhood that demon-possessed people show up in services that are under the full operation of God’s Holy Spirit: services with exuberant praise, extended worship, a powerful faith message, and the operation of the Holy Spirit’s gifts.
The minister must always be ready for this. He or she must have the discernment of spirits because sometimes the person is drawn into that very service to disrupt it. Other times, while the flesh of the demon-possessed person may resist the work of the Holy Spirit, the souls of some long for deliverance and attend a Holy Spirit meeting, searching for someone to set them free.
I remember A.A. Allen had a book that was filled with pictures of demons. The pictures were hand-drawings of 20 or so specific demons—pictures a formerly possessed woman saw on a regular basis.
As a child, I was horrified by the grotesque images. The faces were twisted with hollow eyes and distorted mouths. The bodies were skeletal and sickly looking. Many of the bodies were difficult to determine whether the form was man, animal, or some combination of both. (In fact, when the movie E.T. came out, I remember thinking that E.T. looked a lot like one of the drawings in that book!) Some had saliva dripping from their mouths with salacious looks. Others had pronounced features that distorted any semblance of humanity.
I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want that book in their collection, but Brother Allen thought it might help some-one who was seeing similar things to know they needed the delivering power of Jesus.
Many who came to Allen’s tent meetings brought loved ones needing deliverance. Brother Allen never backed down from taking authority over the devil. During the deliverances, things often became intense.
I remember one small woman who seemed as though she couldn’t hurt a flea. When Brother Allen started to address the devils within, her body began to violently shake and writhe. It took ten strong men to hold her down.
Often, when my dad or Brother Allen spoke directly to the devils, one of the first things the devil spoke was, “I’m not coming out.” It went on to say things like “She belongs to me, I’ve been here for 15 years, and I am not letting go.”
One time when my father went to help Brother Allen pray for a woman who was brought in a car, as Dad opened the door, the voice said, “So, you need Schambach’s help?”
“Schambach, that devil knows your name!” Brother Allen was a little taken aback. Dad felt like he was in good company with the apostle Paul in Acts 19:15 (NKJV) when the sons of Sceva tried to cast out a devil: “And the evil spirit answered and said, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?’”
In decades of deliverance meetings, I have heard these spiritual entities identify themselves as demons of lust, fear, suicide, death, alcohol, perversion, and confusion. If they didn’t identify themselves verbally, the Holy Spirit identified them, and when they were called by name, they vacated their fleshly homes.
Let’s look at specific spirits the Bible clearly identifies:
1. Spirits that torment: These are spirits designated to bring mental and physical anguish. The assault is relentless and debilitating.
Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear (1 Samuel 16:14 NLT).
2. Spirits of fear: While there is a natural fear emotion, the Bible clearly indicates that spirits of fear can dominate our thinking, bringing distraction that keeps us from our purpose. In 1 John, the apostle writes about the torment associated with fear—fear can be a tormenting spirit.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV).
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love (1 John 4:18 NKJV).
3. Spirits that cause illness or infirmity: Certain spirits cause physical problems: blindness, deafness, crippling, muteness. They can be identified by the malady they cause.
Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw (Matthew 12:22 NKJV).
Often, as I have prayed for folks around the altars, the Holy Spirit will have me address an infirm spirit. Sometimes that spirit is identified: a spirit that causes diabetes; a spirit that causes lupus, etc.
And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up (Luke 13:11 NKJV).
4. Lying spirits: Spirits that speak through humans and cause them to tell lies. It is interesting that God sent this lying spirit as a judgment against a rebellious people.
Therefore look! The Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you (1 Kings 22:23 NKJV).
5. Seducing, or deceiving spirits: Spirits that cause people to believe a lie. Many of God’s people have been duped by politicians, false prophets, the news media, and educators. They have believed lies about the grace of God, hell, the Rapture of the Church, marriage and divorce, evolution, abortion, and homosexuality.
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons (1 Timothy 4:1 NKJV).
6. Spirits that cause insanity:
And when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shack-les and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces; neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones (Mark 5:2-5 NKJV).
My father often told the story of a woman who came to him in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during one of his meetings. She had watched him wear cloths on his body and give them to people who had loved ones needing a touch from God. Many times, as the loved ones came in contact with the cloth, the healing came into their lives.
Well, she came for something similar, but not a cloth. “Brother Schambach, will you wear this candy on your body?”
“Candy?” my dad asked, incredulously. “Woman, people are talking about me now as I wear cloths on my body. No, I will not wear candy!”
“Brother Schambach, you must wear this candy!”
“I won’t!” my dad resisted. Then, she told a story that got to him.
“Brother Schambach, my sister is in a mental institution. She has been there for years. I have sent her prayer cloths from so many preachers, but the staff know what they are and throw them into the trash can. Well, I want to put one over on the devil. I believe if the anointing can go with a prayer cloth, it can go with candy, too. I want to see my sister set free!”
He had lost the argument. “Give me the candy!” he capitulated. And he wore it while he preached. He said it was the kind that “melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”
A few months later, Dad was conducting a meeting in the same auditorium. During the offering, two women approached him. One of the ladies said, “Brother Schambach, I would like you to meet my sister.”
At first, he didn’t recognize her, but then the light went on! The woman who persuaded him to wear the candy told the story of how she received a phone call from the mental institution, asking her to come and pick up her sister. They had put her through a week’s worth of tests and found her to be completely restored to her right mind.
When the woman eventually asked her sister what happened, she said that as she bit into the candy, she felt some-thing shoot into her mouth, down to her feet, and back up to the top of her head. Something left her body—and when it left, she was completely well.
Sometimes in deliverance ministry, things can become messy. Sometimes the preacher sweats and feels worn out. Often, the person needing deliverance is put through a wrestling match with the devil that can seem violent.
I have seen demons vomited out, screeched out, bounced out, and completely flattened by the Holy Spirit. I have seen them cause people to slither like a snake.
But it is the deliverance that always looks the same. The once bound mind and body take on a new countenance. Where there was torment, peace washes over the expression. Where there was fear and depression—suddenly there is great joy and gratitude! Often when the devils come out, the Holy Spirit comes in and fills that empty vessel. Many start to pray in tongues that they never learned in school.
People today need deliverance. I often think about how many unnecessary suicides there have been. What if one of God’s servants had intercepted them before they could commit the action?
The truth is, many of God’s people feel powerless against the devil. And they are not—you are not.
I remember sitting on the platform of my father’s tent in Camden, New Jersey. Dad had called for those who had been delivered from drugs by Jesus. A line of about twenty people formed. All the testimonies were powerful, but I will never for-get what one gentleman said: “I used to shoot up outside the Pentecostal church. I would curse the people as they came and went. Why did I curse them? I knew they had the power to set me free, but they walked right by me. They never used the power they had from Jesus.”
What an indictment against us believers! I must admit I was convicted that day. I prayed and asked the Lord to help me to see with His eyes. I asked Him to help me never walk by someone who needs the power of God in their life.
Today, we have a society saturated with demonic oppression, deception, and torment. As never before, the Church of Jesus Christ, powerful and triumphant, is needed to handle business.
