The Bible simply provides little information on this topic, the author is making it all up, speculating with his own vain imagination.
The Bible is not the sole rule of faith and morals to of the Church, so we're not concerned that all this data is not explicitly contained within the Holy Book.
The sources, which I ennumerated before in a separate post, are worthy of credit, at least for us Catholics - and many Orthodox and Anglo-Catholics. Of course, one needs to be open and receptive to the full spectrum of Revelation God granted to the Church which ceased with the death of the last Apostle and is kept alive in the Church's oral proclamation and in Holy Writ.
-Theo
“The Bible simply provides little information on this topic, the author is making it all up, speculating with his own vain imagination.”
Many times while doing this work, scriptures that I was unfamiliar with came out of my mouth. I learned much by listening to the words that flowed through me. When you have experienced this first hand, you no longer believe the scriptures to be true, you “KNOW” the scriptures to be true.
Jesus only taught those close to Himself how to perform exorcisms. He even warned that many will cast out demons in His name who do not know Him. All of His teachings were meant to empower individuals to work on themselves and cleanse their souls to grow closer to God. Not to work on other people.
This is why He made the statement to His disciples, “I share this knowledge with you. Do not share it with others.” (Sorry for the paraphrase)
If allowed to make my own choice, I most likely would not desire to be in the field of combat doing this work as you get wounded often if you do not practice the presence of God every minute of every day. The personal demons that Paul spoke of are real and waiting for an opening at all times. It is given that I will make mistakes. However, as long as my motive is pure I will be forgiven and no harm will come to me or the person I am working with.
There are many dangers to the person performing this work and to the person it is performed on if you are doing it from “self.” This I have learned from the “School of Hard Knocks.” If you remove a demon and the wound that allowed it in is not healed, seven more even worse can come and take its place. If you confront a strong demon and you do it from a position of “self” it may turn on you and enter you. Pride is the greatest enemy from within for a person performing deposessions. You never perform this work in public as bystanders may get stung and injured and/or you develop pride in their eyes. Pride is the greatest poison as if you are full of yourself, you have no room for God to perform the work.
In one instance, when a dark powerful demon was removed from a lady, she went into a deep depression as her entire self identity was based upon life from the perspective of an internal dependency upon the demon. She needed to accept the Love of God in order to fill the void that was created by the removal. This is why Jesus told the story of the ten lepers who were healed, and only the one who “praised God” was made whole. He does not say it, but the reality is that the other nine got their leprosy back. This is what happens if the wound is not healed. Just because Jesus removed the wound in the person’s soul and often said, “You are forgiven.” does not mean that they heeded His warning to “Go and sin no more.”
People often get upset with me about three days after I work with them when the inner joy goes away. I ask them, what have you done to keep the joy there? If you do not continue to add fuel to a fire it goes out. If you do not continue to focus on God, your joy will fade away.