Diagnosing the Demonic
PAGE 2 of 6
Case Study of a Foothold
In order to see these played out in real life, let's consider a case study written by a former client we will call "Michelle."
I was number six of seven children. I never felt like I really belonged to the family. I was a burden, or a mistake. We lived in the projects of Philadelphia until I was six. We moved to a very rundown house when I was seven. Both my parents drank a lot. They became angry, abusive, and scary when they drank.
My father worked; my mother stayed home. Both of my parents had sexual and physical abuse in their pasts, and they carried that into our home. We were poor and we went without food on several occasions. To avoid embarrassment, I would lie about stuff to cover up the truth. If a teacher asked me where my coat was, I would tell her I did not like wearing coats. When friends would ask to come over to play, I would say my mother was sick. At Christmas I would lie about the presents I got; I never received any gifts from my parents, but I did not want anyone to know that. The Father of Lies got his hooks in me at an early age. Lying made me look like something I was not.
The first sexual abuse I can remember was at age five. My mother came into my room, picked me up from bed, and carried me to my dad's bed where he touched me all over. The nighttime ritual went on for several years. He showed me nude pictures. He read sexual events to me, and then wanted me to act those things out with him.
At age seven, I accepted Christ as my savior, and I loved God as much as I could at that age. I believed that God would stop the abuse if I was just good enough. But soon I believed that I was not good because the abuse continued and even got worse.
My father wanted to introduce me to oral sex; I was seven years old. I said no. He became outraged. He grabbed me and took me to the basement. He made me watch him as he killed my kitten, and he told me if I ever said no to him again he would cut my throat just like he did with my kitten. I was sent out back to bury the kitten. I remember looking up to the sky and praying to God for help, but help didn't come.
I felt so alone and scared, and I was angry with God. I didn't let go of my belief in God, but it didn't offer much comfort. I just wanted to die and go live with Jesus forever. God was the only thing I had to hold on to.
The sexual abuse continued for years. I thought no child should ever have to endure such horrible things, especially from her parents. My mother was just as abusive as my father.
I always wondered why I was so singled out. The answer to that came when my mother, in a moment of weakness and rage, told me that she had been raped by her brother 13 years ago. I was the result of that rape. Now I knew why I felt from the beginning that I didn't belong. I guess my father felt it was okay to molest and rape a child who was not his own.
PAGE 2 of 6
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Displaying 1–5 of 16 comments
David W. Appleby
Matt, thanks for your input. The purpose of this article was not to make a carefully reasoned case for deliverance. I try to do that in my book, It’s Only a Demon. I would encourage you to check it out if you are looking for a carefully reasoned argument. As for Michelle being powerless and 100% the victim as a child, I would agree. We know that the Enemy goes about like a lion seeking whom he may devour. If you’ve ever watched a large predator hunting you will see that they go after the young, the injured, and those who have been separated from the herd (meaningful, healthy support). Michelle was all of these. As an adult, I am afraid that I would part company with you there. I believe that God holds us responsible for our choices, though your point about co-dependency is a good one. Demons prefer to begin the process of violation and destruction early. Their usual pattern is for the demon to help the victim “fix” one problem using demonic patterns that will ultimately exacerbate other problems further down the road. Because the demonic “fix” often initially works and helps alleviate the pain, the victim begins to cooperate with the demonic spirit, thus reinforcing the destructive patterns. It rarely gets better before it gets worse.
David W. Appleby
David, I appreciate your comments and I just wanted to tell you that I completely agree with you. The symptoms and sources of demonization are based upon observations made over more than twenty-five years of doing deliverance and are not, to my knowledge, found listed this way anywhere in the Scriptures. If you read my book, it’s Only a Demon you will find that I say that plainly there. I try to make a clear distinction between what I can support biblically and what I’ve discovered over the years that is not biblically based. In fact, if you read this article carefully, I don’t think I say anywhere that the symptoms or sources are biblically based. Unfortunately, the Bible doesn’t provide us with much information on a lot of subjects. The purpose of the Scriptures is to reveal Jesus Christ, not to be a handbook on how to do deliverance, how to govern a church, the biblical position of men and women in the community of believers, etc. However, the fact that many things are not clearly laid out for us does not keep us from trying to connect the dots and drawing what we hope are biblical conclusions on a wide variety of subjects.
Jeff
I was raised baptist and mostly educated within the Church of Christ (which does an EXCELLENT job with educating their flock, in my honest opinion), and I had issues that my Bible teachers assumed were neurological. I heard about Dr. Appleby, so I booked an appointment. Lo and behold, I was freed from the torment and have now seen first hand what freedom in Christ is supposed to look like.
ANONYMOUS COWARD
For many years I worked at a maximum security mental hospital. When I was young I believed that ALL of the patients were ONLY mentally ill and could be helped. After years of experience I believe ALMOST ALL mentally ill people are ONLY mentally ill. There were a few patients I had my doubts about. Some of those acted insane but some of them were not. Some were just plain evil.You have to look evil in the face to understand this. I can't explain it, it has to be experienced.Some people who work in those places never see it or do not recognize it.I cannot describe the experience in a short post. It would take a novel to do that.A novel that would have many mental health professionals demanding that I undergo psychiatric care. The truth is that those professionals do not spend much time in direct care of the mentally ill. I truly believe that there are a FEW people I met in that place who WERE possessed. NOT MANY but still a few.
RC
I agree that his does open a can of worms but it is more dangerous to ignore this topic that to unplug the blinking oil light on your dash which will lead to imminent engine failure. As a newly rededicated believer a demonized fellow student declared, I need to talk to you. NO, I had never been mentored and trained in what I would face. But Jesus cares and can help people.
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