Praying out demons:

Praying out demons: CAST them out instead!

There are many today who will attempt to pray over a person who is obviously in demonic bondage, but they don't even consider the thought of casting out the demon spirit behind the bondage. What is the usual result? The person remains in bondage and the prayer does little or no good.

God has given us authority over demon spirits, and along with authority comes responsibility. We were not given authority over demon spirits and told to cast them out for no reason! When we pray over a person who has a demon, asking the Lord to remove it, we are basically asking Him to do something that He told us to do :

Matthew 10:7-8, "And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils : freely ye have received, freely give."

Now some might ask, "What about the verse where Jesus tells His disciples that this kind can come forth by prayer and fasting only"? In that scenario, an unusually strong demon was involved and Jesus clearly told His disciples that their faith levels weren't high enough to cast it out, and that they needed to spend more time in prayer and fasting before they could drive this particular demon out:

Matthew 17:19-21, "Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief : for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."

Let me ask you this question, did Jesus pray and ask His heavenly Father to remove the demon? No, He commanded it to come forth like any other demon spirit:

Matthew 17:18, "And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour."

Jesus was considered the son of Man while He was here on earth... Why? Because He was our example , and as our example, He went about doing the works that He intended us to do as well:

John 14:12, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."

Are we not given authority over ALL powers of the devil? If so, why couldn't the disciples tackle the stronger-than-usual demon and cast it out freely? They could have, if they had spent more time in prayer and fasting. Jesus made it abundantly clear that the reason they were unable to cast it out, was because of their lack of faith:

Matthew 17:19-20, "Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief ..."

We don't see Jesus and His disciples going about praying for demons to come out, do we? Where did we get this concept of praying out demons? Let's stop praying for demons to come out, and start acting on our God-given authority and do as Jesus commanded of us... let's cast them out!