How To Cast Out Demons by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Commission to Every Believer

Mark 16:15–18 — "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature... And these signs will follow those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues... they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover."

Jesus is not talking only to pastors. He is talking to everyone who believes. The signs are attached to the believers, not to a title. Jesus himself said, "The works that I do testify of me." The route to the wonder of who Christ is runs through signs and wonders.

Manifesting power is preventive. There is a revelation of God that can only be experienced in the corridors of power. If you are never exercising power outward, the only way God can show you certain things is by allowing you to experience need yourself. If you cannot heal the sick, the only way to know God heals is to fall sick. Either be the one who raises Lazarus, or be Lazarus. Choose.

What Demons Are

Demons are disembodied spirits. They do not die in the human sense because they are not made of flesh and blood. They can be judged, bound, and cast out — but they cannot be killed.

Luke 8:30–32 — when Jesus asked the demon its name, it said "Legion" — approximately 12,000 spirits in one person. They begged him not to send them into the abyss. They were not afraid of death. They were afraid of judgment — of being sent into chains before their time. Matthew 8:29 — "Have you come here to torment us before the time?"

Revelation 20:10 — the devil will be cast into the lake of fire, tormented day and night forever. They do not cease to exist. Spirits do not die.

This is why prayers that say "let this demon die by fire" are theologically incorrect and will not be answered — demons do not die. The Holy Ghost fire is for purifying believers, not for destroying spirits. Malachi 3:3.

How to Actually Cast Out a Demon

1. Confront with words, not hands. You are dealing with a spirit inside a human being. Never strike the person. Speak with authority and with hatred for what the enemy has been doing to that individual. Volume is not the same as authority.
2. Command in the name of Jesus. The authority is not yours — it is Christ's. A two-year-old child saying "daddy is calling you" moves an adult because of who daddy is. In the same way, demons do not move because of your prayer life. They move because of the authority that Jesus' name carries. A policeman's uniform commands compliance — not because of the size of the officer, but because of the force they represent.
3. It is not because you can pray — it is because you are saved. The authority to cast out demons belongs to every believer by virtue of their standing in Christ. "Having spoiled principalities and powers" — Colossians 2:15 — God gave believers the right to walk as his deputies on the earth.
4. If they do not immediately leave, find out why — use the person's original confession and counter what the spirit claims with scripture. You can also ask for the demon's name and cast it out by name, as Jesus did in Luke 8.
5. After the demon leaves, lay hands on the person, pray for an infilling of the Holy Spirit, bless them, and then sit with them privately. Show them — gently — what came out of them, so they do not return to the same door. Give them scriptures and instructions on how to live going forward.

You confront a demon with words. You do not slap it out. The demon is in the person — and the person is a human being made in the image of God.