POSSESSION AND EXORCISM
POSSESSION AND EXORCISM
"What are you arguing with them about?" he asked.
A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not."
"O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me."
So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"
"From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."
" 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. "You deaf and mute spirit," he said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again."
The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"
He replied, "This kind can come out only by PRAYER."
(Saint Mark 9, 16-29)
Diabolical influence or possession may occur for different reasons:
Damnations from the parents, many times from the mother's womb.
Cases of incest or sexual abuse of children.
Victims of witchcraft, hatred, evil eye, voodoo, etc.
Participation in satanic cults, witchcraft, séances, magic, yoga, ouija board, clairvoyance, divinations, superstitions, amulets, enchantments, crystals, new age; literatures, movies and impure, violent or satanic shows.
Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour.
(1 Saint Peter 5, 8-9)
Demonic influence. This is a more subtle level of demonic or diabolical possession. He who suffers the influence of the evil one, ends up doing evil things without any explanation, he may blaspheme against God without knowing why, he may listen to voices that lead him to do undesirable things, he may become obsessed with suicide, he may kill himself or others.
The demonic influence may begin by interest in the occult, consultations of horoscopes, reading of the hands, predictions of the future, ouija board, witchcraft, enchantments, evil eye, damnations from other people, hatred, séances, magic, yoga, pendulum, communication with spirits through mediums, clairvoyance, tarot cards, divinations, superstitions, amulets, crystals, new age, literatures,
movies and impure, violent or satanic shows.
He who is possessed loses control of his mental faculties, in so far as to come to a spirituality that allows him to pray for himself, because the devil has received total dominion over him. Only through a profound prayer of deliverance done by believers in Christ or an official exorcism of the Church, can he be delivered.
PRAYER is essential.
Saint Mattew 7, 7-11:
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?