BY VERBAL BEAN

Some of the greatest victories come when you go right over the devil. Don’t be to quick to back off, and be polite. A man of God can’t be polite in some cases. That’s the truth. I have seen when the devil will throw up a block, and every rule of etiquette in the book had to be broken to get through, but you knew there was a victory behind it; if you could get through that wall. You’ll have to learn that or you’ll be allowing souls to go to hell.

I remember when Brother Lawrence and I went to pray for his grandfather. The devil put up a block. That man clammed up on us, he wouldn’t talk. He was full of cancers. They tried to sew him back up, and the incision wouldn’t grow together. We were there to baptize him, and pray him through, and he wouldn’t talk to us.

The devil had shown me that intestine hanging out. He said, “Just as sure as you crumple him up in that bathtub, every bit of him will empty out into that tub.” I could honestly see it bursting open. Brother
Lawrence would talk to him a while, and back up then I’d go at him awhile. There were times I almost gave up, and this is a case when God used two men, because when I was about to give up, Brother Lawrence
would take over with new courage. After awhile his grandfather said, “Okay, I guess so.” We baptized him in that bathtub!” That stubborn spirit wouldn’t let him go, but when he came up out of that water he was talking in tongues!

That devil wanted us to be bluffed out that day. Praise the Lord! You’ve got to have a bulldog determination.

Brother Dross was called in for handing out tracts, and threatened by the priest. Finally a Jesuit looked over and said, “Reverend, I don’t see where you’re doing so much damage. I don’t see how they could stop
you from handing out gospel tracts.”

He said, “Your Honor, they’re not going to!”

The more sensitive you become to God, the more sensitive you become to the devil. Understand, when you train your feelers to feel after God, you are automatically able to feel the other spirits. It’s impossible to know the one without knowing the other. The more you know one, the more the other’s presence affects you. The closer you get to God, the more the devil’s going to fight you. He doesn’t want you to pray, that’s why he tries to scare you while you pray.

I met one preacher that said he saw the devil one morning in the church. He was by himself before daylight, and the devil made himself visible to him. This was a grown, effective preacher. He said he would
never go back to that church and pray.

The difference between that man and myself is, I would feel like I would be yielding to the devil, if I said I wouldn’t go back. If the devil can run you one time, he’ll run you somewhere else. So the best thing to do is to go back and to stand on the same ground until you win victory. I don’t think there’s a saint that hasn’t felt that fear at one time or another, and generally it’s after church, often, after a very successful service, the devil will inhabit the building. He’ll wrestle himself in there to try to take it over after a service.

“O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3).

Praying creates an atmosphere that entices God. By the same token, when there are fears, it has the same results with the devil, as praying does to God. When you start praising the Lord, it’s not long until you start feeling the Lord. When you allow fears to start building up, it’s not long until, sure enough, you feel the devil. We could sit here right now and start talking about the devil, and we’d start feeling a certain sensation.

I prayed whole nights in churches by myself when I was nine years old, and I would be so scared at times until my flesh would stiffen, but I refused to move out of there! Stay there, go on and get your victory.

The closer you get to God, the more the devil’s going to fight you. Did you know it was as common for old timers to see and to contact the devil, as it almost is for us to see one another around here? Because they lived in so much opposition to it. It was common for Brother Dowton in Cincinnati to see the devil. I’m not talking about just feeling creepy, I mean see him!

He was praying one morning, he said, “All of a sudden the devil stood there in front of me and challenged me!” Naturally that fear starts coming, but if you can realize who you are, and that you’re covered with the blood, he can’t do a thing to you.

The best way to handle the devil is to ignore him. If you go to fighting him, you’ll spend the rest of your life fighting him. Ignore him and he’ll leave you.

After awhile, Brother Dowton got his Bible, and felt anointed to take the Book and start cracking at him. Every time he would look at him, he’d get smaller. He kept on, until he had him in a corner. He was a little bitsy thing, and he gave him one last lick in the name of Jesus, and he faded away.

Brother Dowton was breaking over into the enemy’s territory, so naturally he’s going to get stirred up. If I was the devil, I’d do my best to try to run you out of there. Man, I wouldn’t want you praying. I’d scare you so badly!

There’s a seat of Satan in some churches. Sometimes, you go in a church you’ll find it. There’s a bed of devils there. I’ve gone into these churches and God used me to dig out nests of old adulterous sins that
had been bedded down in there for years. I’d get that adulterous demon so mad until I’ve actually, had that same demon of adultery come into my room, and walk naked women across my floor. Just as real as I’m
looking at you. He was mad! One night I woke up, scared nearly to death, and God knows that I had been a clean, young single man. I did not know the feel of a woman’s body, but the devil woke me up, with a
woman’s body on me. It scared me nearly to death. I came up from there just a fighting! I had dug into a nest of that junk, and the devil was mad!

One preacher laughed at me about that, but he got his church dug up, and found every kind of a mess in there in the country. Months later he said, “Just as I was about to go to sleep, that demon paraded these
naked women across my bedroom! I thought you and Joe Duke were crazy telling me you had seen all that. But I fought them until I was worn out!”

In one place, God spoke to me that there were going to be two murders, in connection with that little church in that little community. It wouldn’t take a revelation to say there were going to be two murders
being planned in Houston tonight, but here was a small community, and a small church, and in connection with that church, two murders being planned! God showed me one of the saints involved. I went to her and
said, “You’re fixing to be involved in a murder!”

She said, “I don’t know anything about it.”

I said, “You will know! ”

When I revealed it that night, one of the saints came to the pastor and said, “Brother Bean’s accurate with his revelation. My husband has followed a man all day long, and he has a pistol in the glove compartment of his car right now! He was trying to find him by himself so he could kill him and then swear it was self-defense.” That was one of them.

Later, this other lady came to the altar, and I went to her and told her. Not long after, she prayed through her husband and her children. She asked her husband about it. He said he had planned to commit
suicide, and of course he was fixing to kill her first.

A few days after I revealed these two murders, both of them were stopped. One night, about three o’clock my mother called me. My mother’s been very accurate in discernment, revelations, and the gift of knowledge. She said, “I can’t sleep. You have revealed a spirit of murder, and that demon is mad and he’s going to try to kill you! You stirred his nest up!”

Mothers, sometimes, get a little excited, and I thought that by chance this is what was wrong, but I knew she’d been accurate so many times, until I didn’t want to completely shut it off. So I prayed, but I didn’t worry and I went to bed.

Let me show you how these spirits work. In the same church I had revealed an adulterous spirit, in connection with the preacher! Since I stirred these spirits up so much, it made them both mad. The preacher that was involved in this thing, lived close to where I was preaching. He told another preacher that Thursday night when my mother called me, “I went to the gun rack, to get a gun off the rack, and I was going down and blow Verbal Bean’s guts out!” So, when dealing in the spirit world, the closer you get to God, the more you’re going to know about both God and the devil.

We were talking about becoming demon possessed. I believe there’s got to be a transaction. The devil inhabits doubt and fear. That’s why in foreign countries the demon powers are more active, is there’s more
fear.

Fear is faith in reverse. When faith is so strong in the powers of darkness, and it’s so built up, it’s no wonder witch doctors can call snakes up out of the ground, because they worship devils over there. You might not believe it, but there’s a spirit in those foreign countries.

When I landed in South America, I’ve never felt such darkness in my life, because ignorance and fear seem to entice demon power. So, there’s got to be a transaction in you before a devil can take you over. I don’t want to scare you, but warn you.

A certain lady was in a place where I was preaching, and one night the Holy Ghost spoke to me and said “There are people in this church hiding their talents. I give them gifts and they won’t operate them. I want
you to call them up here.” He showed me one of them. He said, “I gave her the gift of interpretation of tongues, and she won’t obey me.”

So I called her up to the front, and said, “Sister, God spoke to me that He’s been dealing with you about interpreting messages, do you know anything about it?” She broke down and began to cry, and said,
“I’ve fought it. I was afraid to acknowledge it enough to even tell my husband about it. It’s been on me for months.” So I laid hands on her and prayed for that spirit of fear, unbelief and bondage to leave her, so she would start operating this gift. It wasn’t long until she came through with beautiful and accurate interpretations .

She began to ignorantly wade out into the spirit world, and because of her ability to discern, she started picking up evil spirits and didn’t know how to handle them. Here’s where you need to stick close to
somebody that does know. If you try to operate all this by yourself without instruction, you can get into trouble.

That woman became oppressed. She was normally, a clean, godly woman, that had no desire to run out on her husband, but suddenly lust built in her heart so great until she actually was dying with it.

She said, “I sat down at the table trembling with lust. I couldn’t understand it. This wasn’t the type woman I am.”

Adulterous spirits are like radar. If they’re in a person they’ll send out a signal, and that signal will touch you. If you’re not right with God, and in good shape, you’d better back off.

A lot of what we’re doing we inherited, and has troubled me for years. I can’t find a place in the Bible where four grabbed the demon-possessed by the legs, four got his arms, and they all held him down until finally they cast the devil out of him!

Tom Barnes helped my faith, because I felt all along there was an imperfection in that method. I feel like there is a spiritual parallel to pumping water with an old pump, and with turning on an electric motor. I had always been taught that somebody started it out that way, and that’s all I ever knew.

“Grab em!” Let them lift you up, and throw you around, pitch you around, take about five men to hold one little fellow down! I actually saw a little man take a large man with one arm and pick him up off the floor! The little man under normal conditions couldn’t hardly pick up fifty pounds! I always thought there was an imperfection, but it’s been hammered to us, and I’ve been working on that.

Brother Barnes said, “I never touch them. On one occasion, there was one demon possessed. She would back off as far as the other end of the building, and start running at me. She’d run, and I’d just stand there.
She’d come within a few feet of me, and it looked like she had hit a wall and bounced back. She never touched me, even though she was fighting me.”

I believe our faith is imperfect when we’ve got to hold them down. If that’s the only way to do it, then do it. But let’s attain that power with God, and authority over the devil. We do know that they fell on the ground, and ran into certain convulsions, but we never see where they had to hold them, that’s an imperfect faith. I believe we ought to attain a higher faith. I believe we ought to have enough God that they’d scream out at us during church. That we’d have enough authority to tell them to be still, hold their peace, to come out, and there not to be any big commotion.

A preacher was telling me that the night he got the Holy Ghost, he knew he was demon-possessed, with a demon of adultery. He said when they were casting that devil out of him, he was so under the influence of
that demon that he literally felt that those men were tickling him in the ribs, and for days his ribs were sore.

After he got deliverance he asked, “Why did you men tickle me?”

They said, “We never touched your ribs.”

That spirit was agitating him while they were casting it out. He literally saw that spirit come out of him. He said it circled around, and the pastor was standing on the platform, and he saw it go into him. Two years later that preacher fell with adultery.

Devils do such strange things that don’t even make sense. They can say some very vulgar things. If you have a bad case, don’t ever take them in public, because they’ll deeply embarrass you.

I believe there is a demon possession where they don’t have any control of their minds. There is a degree of demon possession where it’s left up to me to get it out of them. It can be cast out to a level, to where they think normally, but still spirits are in them. If they don’t want to turn loose, there’s nothing you can do. I’ve had that to happen to me. I’ve watched it.

At first, the man was so demon possessed he was taking rags and wiping creatures off the wall. “Did you see that varmint there?” He’d take a rag and wipe the wall. He reached at the snap of your finger and tore a
preacher’s pocket clean off his shirt. He walked up to me and challenged me. I never touched him, I just talked to him.

He was so under the influence of demons that he was vomiting. This is a symptom of certain spirits and demons. He was rolling, crawling and making the most awful sounds you ever heard. It sounded like an animal dying. The sound wasn’t even coming out of his mouth. It was coming from way down inside. A low growl.

While he was in this height of demonic convulsions, I said “What’s your name?”

And he said, “sex dragon.” I had cast out many of demons by the help of the Lord, but there were two in there that I hadn’t got out. One of them was that sex dragon, the other was cigarettes.

After awhile I stopped and said, “Look, by the help of the Lord we’ve been able to get these others out, but you’re holding to these two.” Finally he broke down and said, “I’ll have to admit, I love them the best.”

I said, “Man, you’re going to hell! These things will take you to an eternal flame! You’d better turn loose so we can deliver you!” He began to cry, repent and asked God to get them out. It wasn’t long until he was speaking in a heavenly language! It reached a certain level where he had self-control, then, there’s nothing you can do about it.

The preacher that the man saw the spirit of adultery enter, had stopped praying. He hadn’t prayed through, and I believe there was something in him already. You’re going to make mistakes, Brethren. The devil will
take you and at times snare you into mistakes, even sin. But if you’re quick to repent, you still have the blood available.

When you start harboring something, and you’re not going to repent, you’re living a hypocritical life. “I’m not even telling God I’m sorry about that.” I believe that preacher hadn’t prayed through in months. That’s why I’m teaching you the importance of prayer to a preacher. Even though he’s having success otherwise without it, he’d better pray for his own soul’s salvation!

The devil can mimic tongues, I’ve heard him do that, but it’s so easy to detect. One night, there was this little girl that came, and the saints were just a shouting. They thought they had prayed her through, but it was a demon power. She’d make a scream that would make chills come all over me, but the saints didn’t know the difference! They were shouting over it, because they thought they had prayed her through!

She was in a jabber of some sort, and screaming. I went over, stopped them, and took her in the back room, because I knew it was a pretty bad one. When I started to cast that devil out, she crawled like a snake. Her body moved like a serpent. Finally, that demon came out of her, and God filled her. There’s a great difference in that kind of tongue, and God’s tongue.

(Shoemake) The devil would like preachers to fear him. I remember in Hammond, Indiana, a man came into the service one night. I saw his hands and fingers and they were stained with nicotine. The following
day, I was in the church praying, and the telephone rang..

He called to say, “I’ve been involved in spiritualism. I’ve actually made people walk, weegie boards to talk, perform, and I would like to be delivered. I’ll come on over to the church, but you’d better get four or five men that are at least as big as you are, because when these demons begin working on me, I’m liable to hurt someone, and hurt them badly!”

I told him, “Come on, I don’t need anyone else.” One man with God is a majority in any situation, and doesn’t need help from anyone. So the fellow came on over, told me about the depths of sin that he had gone into and this spiritualism business. I prayed for him, rebuked that demon and there was no need for wrestling with him. I think the devil wanted advertisement, and wanted somebody to be afraid of him.

(Bean) Some of these spirits want you to handle them. We had a woman that would come to get the devil cast out of her just to get people to lay hands on her. Immediately, I discerned the spirit in her, and here’s these saints holding onto her. She was getting the biggest thrill out of that!

I told them, “Get your hands off of her, that’s what she wants!” There are some of these spirits that get deep satisfaction out of having a preacher, saint, man or woman lay hands on them.

Don’t let the devil scare you. Do you know where the devil operates? In the imagination. He is as big as your mind imagines him to be. If you’ve got him figured out to be a big powerful thing, that God
wrestles — he has God down one day, and God’s on top tomorrow — then he’s that powerful to you.

However, the book of Isaiah describes him this way.

“They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms” (Isaiah 14:16).

One of these days we’re going to say, “You mean that puny thing’s what I’ve been a fighting! He’s not half as big as he tries to make you believe he is.”

The majority of the time, people want deliverance from possession. One woman I prayed for in Miami, Florida, at times would be herself, and would beg for help. But, when that spirit took control of her, she couldn’t help it. That woman reached for my throat. She would have choked me to death, if she could have reached me. She fastened her eyes on me, and that demon spoke out of her, and said “I hate you and I’m going to kill you!”

I had conversation with him, and finally I said, “I’m tired of arguing with you devil, I don’t intend to argue with you anymore. You are coming out.”

He said, “How do you know?”

I said, I know him that is true, and we’re in him that is true, that is Jesus Christ which is the true God and eternal life!

All of a sudden she relaxed from the horrible, drawn look, and started a normal weeping. It wasn’t long until we were all crying, rejoicing and she was talking in tongues!

That demon said, “This is my temple, and I will not come out. I’m god and you’ll worship me.”

I said, “I know you’re lying now! There’s not but one God, and His name is Jesus!” If I had believed in three, I might of had to believe him!

Something occurred that was a little comical. There was a little fellow there in the church, and he was of a know-it-all. I was down praying with a woman, and I backed off to kind of get my breath, and rest a  minute.

He popped up, “Devil! I said come out of there! ” And all this time this demon had been talking back and forth to me. “This is my temple”, and “I’m god and you’ll worship me.”

This guy crouched down there and said, “In the name of Jesus Christ come out of there! ”

She looked up at him and said, “Who are you?”

I almost laughed, because immediately I thought of what the demons told the seven sons of Sceva. They said,

“Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye” (Acts 19:15)

You have the authority to cast them out, it’s yours. If your prayer life matches the will of God, don’t fear them. If he ever knows that you’re scared of him, he’ll torment you the rest of your life. Sometime or another, come into this church about three o’clock in the morning, by yourself, with not a light on, and show him you’re not scared.

We had revival in Sorrelsby, and the devil got so mad, until honestly grown he-men almost ran out of that church building, because that spirit got on them strong.

One evening some girls were praying, and it wasn’t even dark, and they came screaming to the parsonage about a block and a half away. Right out in broad, open daylight, screaming, hollering and a running! Devils had got after them, while praying in the church, and nearly scared them to death.

There’s no need to fear, and it’s dangerous to entertain fear around the devil. You could pick up a spirit, by being afraid of it. You invite spirits by faith in reverse. Faith in God, brings God to you; faith in reverse brings the devil to you, and fear is faith in reverse. Superstitious ideas can be injected into people’s minds, and create a lot of fear. That’s why the Bible is against old wives fables, and witchcraft.

My daddy wouldn’t allow us to turn a chair around on one leg for nothing. If a rooster crowed at night, why, man they’d kill him, because that meant somebody was going to die. That’s witchcraft and  superstition, and it injures your faith. You don’t need it. There are parts of the country where that’s real prevalent. These fears are built up by teaching, and you must teach it out of them.

Our church was across from an embalmer, and he’d come over and tell me about embalming bodies. When they’re embalming they rub them to get that fluid through the veins. He said, “If they died in a wreck they
may have been reaching for the dash board, or just reaching for anything. The nerves are the last thing to die in a human body. Often, when you’re rubbing the warm fluid through a body it makes these nerves
react. He had them grab him with both arms! On one occasion he was rubbing a hand and the hand closed on me with a death grip.

A man was in there on an occasion, and I said, ‘Say George, he’s got me and he won’t turn me loose!’ George was gone!”‘

These are fears that are built up, and the devil enjoys that. He likes that. The devil enjoys tormenting people. It doesn’t have to make sense. If the devil can torment you over tying your tie he’ll do it. I had a battle with a devil tormenting me over feeling enclosed. I was in a church one night. I was staying in the evangelist quarters, so I could get up any time of the night and pray. While I was praying in the church, the devil made the walls of that church come in on me! That sounds ridiculous, but I felt like I was smothering to death. I had to go open the door and stick my head out to get fresh air. It seemed like he pulled every wall towards me, and that was a torment. He enjoys tormenting anybody. It doesn’t make any difference, but especially if you’re trying to do something for God. He wants to create fears, and awkward situations for you.

Sister Freeman said there was a demon cast out of a woman in Africa. That demon power would throw her into fits when she was around water. Water was its contact. She’d go to draw water to wash, or put her hand in water, and she’d fall into a fit.

It doesn’t make sense, and it doesn’t have to, but thanks be to God that there’s a name! Do you hear me? There’s a name that the devil can’t stand!

One of our preachers was called to go into a padded cell and pray for a boy that was totally insane. He was so dangerous that they put him into a padded cell. The authorities didn’t want him to go in, but he said,
“I’ve got to go. The insane man’s mother asked me to go, and I feel I need to do it.”

So they said, “Sign this statement that we will not be responsible for what happens to you while you’re in that padded cell, because we’re telling you that he’ll kill you.”

He said, “I’ll sign anything, because I must pray for the boy.”

He went into the padded cell, and the first thing that happened was the man lunged and grabbed him around the throat and was choking him. He was able for a little bit to say the name of Jesus out loud, and
finally he couldn’t even say it out loud. His breath was leaving him, and he started feeling weak. The man had a death grip on his throat, but finally he said underneath his breath, “In Jesus’ name, in Jesus’ name.”

After awhile that man’s hands fell, and he fell on the floor speaking in tongues! They got him out of the asylum, and that man is preaching the gospel today! What did it? Faith in a name!

(Student) Isn’t there a safeguard in prayer concerning the unbeliever who calls on God, sincerely praying for the Holy Ghost?

(Bean) Definitely so. Jesus said,

“What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone” (Matthew 7:9)?

THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS TAKEN FROM THE BOOK “PRAYER” BY VERBAL BEAN, AND WAS PRIVATELY PUBLISHED AND EDITED BY S. G. CARRIER, 1991, PAGES 135-148. THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY BE USED FOR STUDY & RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.