90-Minute Q&A with an Experienced Exorcist (Fr. Vince Lampert)

hello welcome to capturing christianity today i've got father vince lampert back on the channel to just take your questions and uh just a quick introduction if you don't know who vince is i said in the title of this video he's an experienced exorcist which is completely true father vincent lampert is an american roman catholic priest and the designated exorcist of the roman catholic archdiocese in indianapolis father vincent received his exorcism training in rome if you would like to learn more about him i actually did a really long interview with him i believe is around 90 minutes we talked about his background where he's cut where he came from his training in rome how many exorcists are currently operating in the united states we covered a lot of different things it was a really great interview and it's also our top viewed video on this channel which is crazy it's a check this morning and it's about 630 000 views right now and there's no end in sight so i decided why don't i have them back on the channel to do just a q a with the audience if you have a question for father vincent today then you can leave it in the live chat i i'm anticipating that we're going to get a lot of super chat sent in people asking questions so pro more than likely those are the types of questions that we'll be able to get to today are the the super chats and thank you in advance if you're considering sending one in so before we get started father vince is there anything that you would like to say maybe fill out any details i'm just happy to be back on the show my goal would be to help educate people on what the catholic church believes and teaches about the reality of evil and the practice of exorcism so it's an opportunity really just to educate ourselves and really focus on the importance of faith that's great i also wanted to uh go ahead and talk about your book a little bit i've got it linked in the description of this video so for people who are maybe wanting to get a little bit more information and knowledge about exorcisms and and kind of work that you do uh talk about your book a little bit called i think it's just titled exorcisms or exorcism yeah exorcism the battle against uh satan and his demons so people asked me what did i do during cobot 19 lockdown well i was encouraged to write a book emmaus road publishing [Music] based out of steubenville ohio the uh saint paul institute the saint paul institute for biblical theology scott hahn and his group asked me if i would be willing just to um give some insight share my story about exorcism it's something i've been doing over the last 16 years now so it was an opportunity just to give people a pretty basic understanding of what the church believes and teaches about the subject well yes so like i said i've got the his book linked in the description if you want to find out more and the book was actually just a really easy read but it was also very informative so i definitely recommend picking it up all right so here is our first question uh and this one is a little bit on the lighter side he said easyboy 101 says how often does a exorcist exercise their ability to exercise [Laughter] i like the sense of humor i think it's important you know i'm a priest in the archdiocese of indianapolis so my primary responsibility would be to pastor the two parishes that i'm responsible for here in brookville indiana but probably at least half of my time now is taken up with the ministry of exorcism some exorcists are publicly known some are not those of us who are publicly known probably receive a greater number of callers so i currently get about eighteen hundred people a year who reach out to me who believe they're dealing with evil and are seeking the help of the church there you go and so about 1800 people a year and then in our interview you were saying that only really about you know one in 5 000 people that come to you are actually demon possessed so that's that's interesting so most of the people it seems if we're just going by statistics it seems like most of the people that come to you each year are you know that they're you're sending them to the relevant professionals like mental health or you know whatever else so is that is that the case is is it very rare that you find someone who who needs this kind of you know exorcist help their church would identify four different types of extraordinary demonic activity demonic possession obviously we've been talking about that there can be infestation the presence of evil in a location or with an object there can be uh vexation which are physical attacks obsession which are mental attacks so yeah it's true that one out of every 5 000 may be demonic possession but there are thousands of cases that i deal with every year that have to deal with infestation vexation and obsession and even if i may not be able to help the person who contacts me they may live uh in another state they live in another country but my goal would be to try to connect them with someone in their local area who can give them the the care that they're seeking all right we've got a question from gina m this is a super chat so thank you for sending this in gina she says what sort of safety precautions are in place during an exorcism to ensure the person's safety and youngest age at which church will give an exorcism good questions yes so the location would always be uh determined by itself so it would be uh an exorcism would only take place in a sacred space inside of a church or in a chapel i would be very much aware of anything that's around there that somebody if once they manifest evil might use as a weapon such as throwing a chair trying to grab something off the table and and toss it again i would be aware of the entire surroundings most importantly there's a prayer that said at the very beginning of the ritual itself asking god to watch over bless and protect and safeguard everyone who's involved in this particular prayer of the church when it comes to age the church would say that no one under the age of reason could bring evil upon themself the age of reason would be the age of seven according to catholic teaching that's why that's when a child would make his or her first confession and then first holy communion so if someone is under the age of reason that another parent or guardian would bear responsibility for the presence of evil in a child's life but an exorcism literally could be done on anyone of any age as long as all the proper protocols are followed now i don't think that this is necessarily related to safety although it might have been but i remember reading in your book how you brought in or at least the priest that you were originally training with brought in some you know i think it was just a plastic bag and maybe some paper towels just to you know you know is that is that something common you is there anything that you bring in with you yes because i would want to prepare myself for the pretty common manifestations that take place so when it comes to demon possession oftentimes a person will begin foaming at the mouth and growling and snarling again anything to try to disrupt the prayer of the church the priest had trained me the very first time that i said it on an exorcism he brought in the paper towel on the plastic bag and when the demon manifested and the person began foaming at the mouth that's when he reached over and tore off a paper towel wiped the person's face and then placed the paper towel in the bag so he was pretty much uh very much aware of what was going to take place and he was prepared for that as someone who was experienced in in doing these so uh a question that that kind of popped up in my mind was do you guys do anything in terms of like restraints because it i feel like that's something to be concerned about is it in our previous interview that we did you were saying how someone grabbed up a metal desk chair and raised it above their heads and that to me sounds like there's not a whole lot of restraint that's being done or maybe there was and they broke free what what kind of things do you do in terms of uh restraining these people which again is is for everyone's safety it's not you know this is not to to harm them it's just to keep everyone safe well no one would ever be restrained or tied down or anything like that that would be inappropriate uh again because you could put the person in some type of vulnerable position and the truth is that if it truly is a demon possession then one of the signs of demon possession is superhuman strength we can think in mark's gospel you know the man who was possessed by legion in chapter five shackles chains wouldn't even hold him so a demon wouldn't be constrained by you know physical means which is why we would rely on spiritual means asking god to protect and safeguard everyone that's present in the room because tying someone down or with chains would be ineffective against a demon all right let's move to another question from caleb thank you for your super chat he says do demon possessions occur more in third world countries or does geography play no role well geography plays no role in how the devil can impact the lives of people but i will say that the effectiveness of exorcisms is a probably more real in third world countries first of all they would believe in the reality of a spiritual cause for what somebody is going through in the western world oftentimes if somebody's dealing with demon possession they might quickly be written off as dealing with the mental health issue but in third world countries they would certainly accept that as a possibility the other reason would be you know i would say there's a difference between exorcisms performed in [Music] parts of the world where the good news of jesus christ has not been proclaimed and in what i would call the apostate world meaning where christianity has been preached but people have accepted it and then turn their back on it and my experience is in the apostate world when people are dealing with demon possession demons tend to make a greater claim on the lives of the individuals because they knew the good news but they chose to walk away from it in other parts of the world where the gospel perhaps has never been proclaimed if someone is demon-possessed and the gospel is preached those exorcisms are immediate and effective okay we've got a another good question here from punch bowl haircut he says can demons affect one's thoughts and emotions uh and i'm taking this as a separate question his next one is can they cause depression and anxiety demons play on a person's memory and imagination so they don't know what we're thinking but they have uh into they can be very intuitive they can use deductive reasoning they can watch us observe us they can think how we might uh react in a certain situation what we might be thinking but again only god himself knows the uh the mind of a human person but a demon can impact our memory and our imaginations you know demons causing depression anxiety that can be a cause simply because we live in a fallen world the reality of sin the devil may not cause every problem in the world but he's certainly an opportunist so he could take advantage of something like covet 19 which is leaving a lot of people in isolation and then use that as an opportunity to bring about more depression loneliness fear anxiety worry and so on so again he can take advantage of a situation to try to advance his kingdom okay let's move on to uh another question this one is from qq minus s could emily rose have survived if she were closer to god from the beginning so maybe give some background here as well who is emily rose so this is the uh the movie that's based on the true story the exorcism of emily rose whereby a priest was working with someone and the person end up ultimately dying and the question i think is asking can you be closer to god and that's even the role of an exorcist is to help somebody draw closer to god because it's not just a matter of casting a demon out it's about inviting the person into a deeper relationship with god so it could have been that perhaps in this case that the person was really tormented which is why uh maybe it did not end so well but again it's you know closer to god that's kind of a kind of guessing where the person may be any exorcist in working with somebody would want to make sure that somebody is in a good frame of mind spiritually and mentally which is why you know a person going through an exorcism would have to have some type of psychiatric evaluation it isn't that the church is doubting that there's a presence of a demon but the church in person needs to be mentally strong to go through the ritual of the church so again that mental strength is important and it could just be that in the case of emily rose maybe that the person was just so fractured that they weren't really willing to allow god to really reach them which is why the case ended in such a tragic manner so something that we talked about in our previous interview was the fact that like there's a kind of myth out there about demon possession where you know you can just so it's almost like catching a cold it's like anybody can sort of be infected by a demon but you argue in in in your book and elsewhere and even interviews that i've seen with you is that demon possession happens when you personally open yourself up to some kind of evil reality right so i think it'd be important maybe talk about that for just a little bit oh absolutely because the person you know if you're a faithful person i always say the devil is already on the run we have to give an entry point into evil in our lives and oftentimes the entry point can be when we engage in activities that are contrary to what the bible would tell us on how we should be living our lives you know a good example would be practicing the occult there's a lot of people today that are engaged in you know witchcraft and magic and tarot cards and ouija boards and you know the list goes on and on and all of these can be an avenue that the devil will use to try to create an opening into our lives but if we're faithful people if you know we're going to church if we're praying we're living out a relationship with jesus christ then the devil is already on the run so we're the ones that have to give the devil an avenue to break into our lives and if we remain spiritually strong we don't have to worry about that but if we're weak in our commitment to the lord then we could be creating a you know a weak link if you will whereby the devil will use that as an opportunity to make a connection with us so this is uh not necessarily related to exorcism but something that you said just now i want to get your your thoughts just as a priest as apart from all the exorcism stuff what is what is like a really good way that someone can draw closer to the lord i think you know first of all one commits their their life to christ they have to have that desire to have that relationship with him to realize the relationship needs to be personal and communal so we need to have that relationship that we foster each and every day through prayer how we choose to live our lives communal in the sense the important role of the church you know jesus doesn't want anybody to walk alone even when he sent his disciples out he sent them out in pairs so the important role that other people play in our spiritual growth and development should never be discounted you know the devil would try to isolate people you know the notion of divide and conquer so again if we're united with christ in a faith community a church community then we can find that strength that we need perhaps to overcome temptation that might come our way so i think again the best way that we grow in our relationship with christ is living out that choice each and every day i love that all right so here's sauraj llama and he says uh no questions love your channel loved the last session with father lampert here on capturing christianity thanks for coming again i thought that was just really nice so uh so i i i wanted to mention again if you're just joining or if you maybe fast forwarded it and didn't watch the beginning of this video then i interviewed father vince uh on a separate occasion back dur uh around halloween of 2020 and that video on our channel is the the most viewed channel uh by far well not not necessarily by far but it has potential to grow i mean my guess is that this year it's going to to surpass a million views it's it's it's incredible but that that interview was just great it was a lot of fun uh very very informative as well and that is linked in the description of this video if you're interested in watching that so uh all right let's get to another question from raymond kent kenny he says any advice for a man who is getting married in june i want to live a fulfilling life with my right with my wife in christ but struggle from time to time well i think that's true of all of us we all struggle even when we commit our lives to christ there may be times when temptation is real but uh i think one of the key things is that we always repent if we find ourselves sinning we always make a return to the lord because god is you know god's love for us is unconditional god is always ready to forgive you know i think about the story of of adam and eve the fall in the book of genesis when god says to adam what have you done i always like to imagine what would have happened if he simply said i sinned and i'm sorry so getting married i think honesty is a a key ingredient in communicating with your spouse there may be times that uh you know maybe the relationship isn't the best but you remember that god himself has brought you together you know getting married to me that's a vocation it's a calling from god oftentimes if people are having marital problems and somebody tells me they're not happy one of the things i like to say to them is well what do you think god intends what does god want from this relationship and oftentimes that's not something that couples having problems have really thought about so i think getting married you know once you put god first in your life then your spouse has to be the next most important person in your life there's a great line out there that says you know getting married hopefully one day you'll have a family if that's god's plan for you but the best thing that a father can do for his children is to love their mother the best thing that a mother can do for her children is to love their father so couples need to constantly grow in their love for each other and to keep christ at the center of their lives it doesn't mean that everything is going to be perfect all the time but it does mean you're going to have the solid foundation on which to build your lives together okay so i'm actually going to skip a little bit back and ask a question that popped up that i think is going to be important and maybe it could it could answer some questions uh later on so this one is from mel choir choir de dusar says how effective is exorcism does it always work and the answer is that it's always effective and it always works because the power and the authority is coming from jesus christ himself so it's it's not me you know if we're relying on me we're all in trouble but if we're relying on the power and the authority of jesus christ that is at work in his church and through his minister that's the most important thing to focus on i like to remind people that in an exorcism jesus is not a bystander he's the main actor and if christ is truly acting then evil will always be defeated now there is sometimes that perhaps people aren't willing to really commit their lives to christ maybe they're holding on to some sin in their life that brought about the presence of evil and people have to ultimately turn everything over to christ 100 percent the good and the bad and and put the entire aspect of their life under the light of jesus christ you know i tell people a good analogy if you walk into a room that's infested with bugs and you turn the light on what happens the bugs all flee and scurry and crawl into every nook and cranny they can find and one can say that in exorcism the church is throwing the jesus the light of jesus christ on the darkness of the devil and his demons and when that happens they will always flee because again we're relying on the power and the authority of jesus christ here's something that i was thinking about so going back to this this one in 5 000 figure most of the people that come to you with demon possession type concerns most of them are not actually dealing with a some kind of demon possessing them so why do you think that so many people are getting it wrong why do they think that they're demon possessed when they're not because i think perhaps people only think about demon possession they may not have a good understanding of the other ways that the devil tries to gain an entry point into our lives you look like demonic infestation for example you know demons be in pure spirits we would say they're neither here nor there we say they're here or there if they're if they're choosing to act there so if there's a presence of evil in the location the answer would be why you know did somebody engage in some type of activity there such as a seance trying to communicate with the dead did horrific crime take place in that location so there would have to be a reason why evil is choosing to manifest but again i think oftentimes people just focus on demon possession but they don't think of the other ways that the devil is trying to gain an entry point into our lives again we have infestation the vexation the physical attacks and the obsession the mental attacks so here's another question and this one is another super chat from christine live and i want to spend some time on this and really unpack what it means because some of these terms in here i don't really understand she says my mother's family practice centeria do you know what that is santeria santeria yes it's kind of a blending it's a blending of kind of the catholic understanding of saints and then blending that in with maybe voodoo practices and whatnot so it's kind of a form of syncretism where people are blending different aspects of different belief so continuing with her her question or comment as a child i had horrible nightmares of the devil dragging me to hell it was constant can santeria open the door to generational curses for me or my children i am devoted to mary of the seven sorrows that's another one what is what is mary of the seven sorrows that's just one of the uh catholic uh beliefs that devotion to our blessed mother so the seven sorrows that she experienced in her life that focus on the different events of the life of jesus such as you know being lost in the temple all the way to the crucifixion so there's significant moments in the life of jesus that may have caused anguish in her heart again you go back to santeria the generational curses you know santeria be perhaps the demon is trying to masquerade as one of the saints of the church and somebody may create a relationship with that demon an attachment to the uh the family it could be a generational spirit so it is in that case where somebody then could be experiencing horrible nightmares but the best way for that to be dealt with is for the person to go in and talk with their parish priest you know everybody that's dealing with the demonic doesn't necessarily need to see an exorcist oftentimes the best place to go is to the local parish priest if somebody is not catholic and over half the people i talk to are not catholic if they belong to another christian faith tradition i always encourage them to go and talk to the pastor of their church you know that person is their spiritual leader and as a spiritual leader the pastor needs to be aware of what the person is going through because i can i can work with anyone regardless of their religious background but if people are going to need ongoing pastoral care that's going to be provided by their own faith community their own church home and so they really need to make sure that their pastor is aware of what they're going through in cases of generational curses the best thing to do is just to pray over the person to pray with them and using the power of christ to break that because we should never believe that a curse is greater than a blessing so curse is something that someone does relying on the power of the devil or his demons to bring about a bad event in a person's life but a blessing is something that is done to commend a person to god and so again a blessing is always more powerful than a curse so somebody believes they've been cursed they need to go and seek a blessing from god through the church all right now next question is from dominique dominic s capturing christianity what's an overview of the procedure for casting out demons maybe i can i don't know i'm trying to understand an overview of the procedure i mean the actual ritual itself or why do we do what we do we do what we do it seems like they're asking about the the ritual of what happened the ritual itself okay so obviously the church does exorcisms because we imitate what christ himself has done jesus performed exorcisms he always made a distinction between those who were demon-possessed and those who needed physical healing so he did both so the church today does recognize that demon possession can occur it's a liturgical right for catholics so we have a prescribed way for it to be done there is a ritual itself the current ritual came out in 1998 it was updated again in 2004 and five at that time it was only in latin the official language of the catholic church in 2016 it was translated into english but the rite itself really is taking the aspects of our christian faith that the devil has rejected and literally throwing it into his face in the face of his demons to defeat him so an exorcism would begin by blessing the person with holy water reminding ourselves of our new life in christ we would recite the psalms out of the old testament of the bible we would read gospel accounts out of the new testament of jesus casting out demons there would be laying on the hands playing on my hands on the head of the person who's possessed breathing on the face of the person invoking the holy spirit there would be a prayer directed to god who's asked to bring relief into the life of the person who is suffering and then there would be a command given to the demon or the demons to depart based on the power and the authority of jesus christ and these can be repeated over and over again but again i think it's always important to remember that what the church is using to defeat the devil are the very core aspects of our faith that the devil has rejected think of baptism think of the word of god so those are the things that will be used to defeat him even when jesus was being tempted in the desert by the devil himself jesus defeated him by the word of god next question is from caleb jackson do possessed people actually have the ability to speak in a language they are unfamiliar with or is that just in the movies that is true so there are four signs that the church would look for for someone to be demon-possessed and one of them would be the ability to speak and understand languages otherwise unknown to the individual superhuman strength having elevated perception and the knowledge of things that a person yeah should not otherwise know and then an aversion to anything of a sacred nature but why would a demon be able to speak a language that it doesn't otherwise know and it goes back to the nature of all angels even before the fall so angels when they were created received infused knowledge they don't have to learn anything the best way to think about it is like a computer that's downloaded with information angels were downloaded with information as well so a demon doesn't have to go to school to learn a foreign language it can just call it up and so the church would see that as a sign of demon possession have you witnessed this sign personally i have often sometimes that i've seen demons speak they will speak in maybe an ancient form of greek or latin aramaic and spanish and the person i know in working with them obviously doesn't know these languages i like to remind people there's no such thing as an emergency exorcism you know it's it's a process you know i don't i want to make sure that a person doesn't really need mental help and so again working with them getting an understanding of their background i would know ahead of time whether or not the person really was able to speak a foreign language and so so in some of these cases were was there someone present who who knew the language in question yes because whenever there's an exorcism being performed it's not just me and and the person who's afflicted it would be me the person afflicted a family member a friend of theirs i may have a another priest a deacon even laypeople that are there to help pray and if i believe that perhaps i would benefit from somebody who has an understanding of like latin more than i do or greek that person could be present as well so again i want to make sure that there's other people in the room that can assist me in my role as an exorcist so in these cases and sorry i'm like kind of camping on this for a second in these cases what what what's something that you've heard you know come out of uh i want to say a demon's mouth but it's kind of like a combination right that the demon is using in our in our previous interview i gave the analogy of like the demon pushing the person out of the driver's seat and getting in the driver's seat of the car the car is the analogy of the body what is something that you've heard someone say in a different language like what was the specific words they said in one occasion in working with somebody the demons spoke and said your god is dead because a part of the ritual of exorcism is to show the person a crucifix because at the crucifixion the moment the devil believed that he had won was actually the moment of his defeat so when the demon manifested and as i was praying and held out a crucifix the demon looked at me and shouted and screamed your god is dead it was this in english or was it a different language it was in a different language do you recall what language it was they had spoken that they were had spoken in latin but i've heard them again before they'll say to me lots of times there's blas there's blasphemies taking place i've had demons tell me you can't get rid of us we've been here too long and you're not strong enough but one of the important things is really not to focus on what demons are saying because the devil is the father of all lies so i don't want to get caught up in like wow look at what the devil is saying or this demon is saying the focus should always be on the power of god that is at work in this particular prayer of the church so the focus always needs to be on god a good example of that i learned early on when i was training in rome and one of the persons that i was able to witness the exorcism being performed on started to levitate during the prayers and the priest who was training me was unfazed i think i'm looking over there with my jaw wide open like what in the world is that and the priest training me this reaches over puts his hand on the head of the person pushes him back and down in the chair and doesn't even you know blink an eye like really that's all you got and you really just continued to pray and to stay focused on what god was doing so jw actually has a question on a theological question he says he or she were all demons formerly angels that decided to rebel against god were they all once good beings and was there a real war in heaven and the answer would be yes because god only creates good you know people will ask the question did god create demons and the answer is no so when god created the angelic world and gave them this infused knowledge he also gave him free will you know god doesn't want to compel anyone to honor or glorify him to worship him he gives us that free choice so god created the angels gave them all this knowledge of the natural world and then basically said will you now honor and glorify me and the belief is that lucifer who was the greatest of all of god's created angels because there the catholic church would say there's a hierarchy within the angelic world and he chose to rebel against god you know the book of revelation says that his tale swept one third of the stars out of the sky and that's our belief that it's a reference to the fall of lucifer and one third of the angels and then lucifer which is a name ironically that means light now is associated with darkness because he's no longer you know receiving illumination from god if you will because he chose to rebel against god along with one third of the angels and so they fall into a world of darkness and then they try to trip humans up so that we ourselves would make the same poor choice that they themselves have made a good way to think about it too is oftentimes if you see an image of a saint there's always a halo around their head that halo is not their glory that they're radiating it means that they've drawn so close to god and uniting their will with the will of god that they begin to radiate the glory of god and because satan chose not to unite his will with god then he fell into a world of darkness you know when i was a kid growing up i have eight brothers and sisters my brothers and i used to like to take these little balls that would glow in the dark and we would put them up against the lamp so that it would absorb the light and then we'd turn the light off and then it would glow but over a period of time what would happen the glow would start to go out unless we put it back up against the light you could say that the devil no longer puts himself up against the light of christ and so he began to fade out if you will and then eventually lapsed into complete darkness because god is no longer there by his choice to uh to illumine him so we've got actually another question from dominique dominic s he says what do you suggest if someone is pretending to be a friend but is targeting you with occult attacks sending demons using occult numbers when you talk well i would say that that's certainly not someone that you want to be a friend that's a relationship that i would look for a an immediate exit and then i would just make sure that you're standing strong in your own faith you know we can't control what another person does they can wish us ill will and try to curse us or send demons our way but as long as we're standing strong in our faith we have nothing to fear paul's letter to the ephesians put on the armor of christ you know if we're doing that we evil is nothing to fear psalm 91 no i need not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day again if our focus is on god and somebody's trying to send evil our way that evil won't have any impact on us whatsoever because again we're wearing that armor that saint paul speaks of so this is actually a a good question from jw he says have you ever heard of demons being able to use technology such as cell phones and text messaging yes i think that uh demons will take advantage of any opportunity to try to get a hold of get a hold of us if you will demons by nature are very intellectual again it goes back to their nature receiving this infused knowledge you know saint thomas aquinas and talking about the angels it can get kind of heady but he says the knowledge of the natural world he called it evening knowledge and then accepting things according to god's plan is morning knowledge if you think about the story of creation it was always evening came and morning followed then it was the new day so when god created the angels and gave them this infused knowledge evening knowledge god basically said with the knowledge i have given you will you now choose to honor and glorify me and then two-thirds said yes they arrived at mourning knowledge and became perfected and then one-third along with lucifer said no and became imperfect creatures and again because they're trying to trip us up they'll use any means whatsoever so technology cell phones text messaging because what have these things done people today are growing up in front of the screen we're living in isolation you watch people using technology oftentimes they just want to be left alone by themselves and again the human person we're social creatures technology has its place it's not inherently evil but how we do use it could be an opportunity for the devil to try to to get a hold on us you think of the story of the fall of adam and eve you know people talk about the fruit of the the tree of the knowledge of good and evil most people call it an apple if you will now an apple is not inherently evil but they use it as something to be disobedient to god with so technology is not inherently evil but we can use it in such a way that uh it uh weakens our commitment to god and perhaps creates a stronger link with the devil and his demons so this is a question from joshua j 5646 i i saw this in live chat i wanted to ask it he says what is father lampert's longest exorcism and he says enjoying these interviews well it depends each time i pray with somebody the exorcism prayers usually it's maybe 30 to 60 minutes and then after that period of time i may schedule another time to meet with them so i would never pray with somebody 10 or 12 hours or more i don't really find that to be effective but i did pray with somebody over the course of one year that was possessed by seven demons the weakest demons are always the first to go and it is important to know that when somebody's possessed rarely is it a case of one demon oftentimes it's many and just as much as there's a hierarchy in the angelic world there's a hierarchy in the demonic world so the demons that are of a higher rank if you will they're always the last to go they're more entrenched or defiant the weakest ones are always the first to go so praying with this person over the course of a year the weakest demons had gone there was one dominant demon that remained it identified itself as the demon leviathan which is mentioned in the bible and it told me it did not have to leave because it had been invited in demons can be very legalistic and it was true in this particular case that the person actually invited the demon into their life but an exorcism can be viewed as a command to the demon to return to god which that it has stolen namely a person created in the image and likeness of god a person can invite a demon in but a person can grow in holiness and virtue and want to change and so for at least you know conversion we would say is an ongoing process just because somebody did something to open up an entry point to evil doesn't mean that they can make they cannot make the choice to close that entry point and an exorcism is an opportunity to close that entry point but also as an opportunity then for that person to grow in holiness and virtue in their relationship with god so in that case i would pray with somebody 30 to 60 minutes the longest exorcism took over a year the shortest one by the way took 45 minutes and that's the one earlier when i mentioned the demon looked at me and said you can't get rid of us you're not strong enough and we've been here too long and during that particular exorcism when i called on the holy spirit and breathed on the face of the person the the chair they were sitting in flew back and hit the wall about 10 feet the person uh let out a shriek and then they came out of the chair and collapsed on the floor and the demon was gone and myself and the other priest lifted the person from the floor and their face was shining as brightly as the sun again we go back and think of that glory of god that this person is now radiating and that's a good indication that the devil the demon is no longer present in my experience just like in the gospels when a demon is cast out there's always some type of shriek if you will because the demon has reached the point where it can no longer resist the power and the authority of christ wow uh okay let's move on to uh the next question from sergio and this is a really good one it's a very common question i think a lot of people have should we be afraid of demons absolutely not don't even need to hesitate on that you know demons are nothing to fear you know the devil always wants to present himself as something more than he is and i think that's probably why i'm more public in talking about uh what the catholic church believes about exorcisms because i want to debunk a lot of the myths you know the devil would prefer actually to work in the shadows because when you drag him out into the light you really come to realize that uh his bark is worse than his bite shall we say so the more that we understand about him to know the more that we come to know that he's nothing to fear i can give an example i was thinking really quickly of a saint of the church of saint padre pio he used to call the devil old bluebeard and uh he believed that he was afflicted not because of anything that he had done wrong but god permitted him to be afflicted by evil as an opportunity for him to show his fidelity to god think of job the old testament same category saint paul as well talked about the thorn in the flesh that he received a messenger from satan sent to torment him to keep him from becoming proud so the church would say in the lives of the saints many of them were afflicted by evil padre peel called the devil old bluebeard he said one night he was trying to sleep he heard all this noise in his room he turned over and looked and said oh it's only you old bluebeard i thought it was somebody important then he rolled over and went back to sleep now how many of us would have that mindset if we believe the devil was actually in our rooms most of us would be terrified but again if we reach the point in knowing the devil for who he truly is he's nothing to fear especially if our relationship with christ is where it needs to be all right let's get to that the next question from kaluya i think that's the way to say this kaluya noel is there something i can do to secretly expel demonic activity in someone i suspect a demon infestation in a family member that rejects christianity well a catholic perspective would be that you cannot perform an exorcism on somebody against their will again we have free will someone can make the choice for christ or they can make the choice against christ but we can certainly pray for that person praying that they come to a better understanding of why it's important to have a relationship with christ so even though we may not be able to cast out a demon because again if there's no willingness for the demon to be gone then it cannot be cast out i talked with an elderly man one time at the request of his family because uh they said he has no faith and we're concerned that when he dies what will happen to his soul and as i was talking with him the man told me that he had befriended demons throughout his life but when he died he had no desire to be with god he actually wanted to spend eternity he told me with the devil and the demons that he had befriended in this life now i hear that and i think wow that's crazy talk but again that's the choice that he's making with his own free will certainly i would pray for him that he would have a change of heart and a conversion and welcome christ into his life but again you think of scripture jesus stands at the door and knocks he doesn't kick the door in and say here i am to save the day we have to invite him in he desires that we have that relationship with him but we have to to want it he doesn't force it upon us so this question is from qq minus s again and this is a little bit off topic but i'm curious to hear what your answer is he says are you qualified to answer why when judas needed to be replaced the church of in jerusalem chose the casting of lots to select his replacement yeah i think when people hear the casting of lots and that's true because matthias was chosen i think there were two that they had kind of whittled it down to and then said they cast lots and the choice went to matthias but again i think we need to in this understanding the casting of lots is not relying on the power of evil but somehow the belief of the day was that the power of god was behind that practice and that's always an important distinction to make is what's behind that a good example i think of when moses in the old testament goes to pharaoh and says god says to let my people go the staff in moses's hand changes into a serpent but pharaoh's magicians are able to do the exact same thing so both of their staffs turned into serpents but what's the distinction moses was a man of god whereas pharaoh's magicians were not so in the case of casting lots to find a replacement for judas the belief was that it was the power of god that was behind that practice and the selection then was made to go to matthias but again it's what god was doing not the power of evil i was reading a biblical commentary on that passage and they said roughly the same thing that the belief back in the day was it was all about god's providence and how he providentially structured the world that he set up and created and so the casting of lots was seen as just sort of an outworking of the same thing like god was still in charge of the lots and what would happen there and so that that's the way that they that's that's just the way that they viewed it back then so it was it was still very much uh integrated with their theology all right so uh gk go ahead i was going to say real quickly that ultimately the focus is on where is the power coming from and in that case the power is coming from god and not from the evil one so gk asked does the average practicing christian or catholic have any have any for or authority to exercise uh for example over minor demons etc to what extent so i think that the question is just yeah how how much power does the average person have i think the average person has some power obviously by virtue of our baptism you know when we're baptized we die to ourselves we put on christ so again we always have to make sure the focus is on the power of christ that is at work within us and not thinking that the power resides with us and i think sometimes that's the fine line that people walk you know when it comes to minor demons you know initially one may not understand fully what they're dealing with is it a minor dean or demon is it a major demon who knows and that comes about in just working with the person and following a process to understand exactly what is taking place but certainly i would say there are two types of exorcisms there's a supplicating exorcism prayer and a major exorcism supplicating prayer is a prayer directed to god who's asked to bring relief into the life of the person perhaps thinks the prayers of deliverance an example would be god see how your servant is afflicted come to their aid mighty defender and give them the peace and freedom that you call for all your children to have certainly any christian can pray that prayer the catholic church does caution about people just giving commands to demons randomly like i command you and the danger would be because if a demon manifests the person has to be willing to follow through then because there's a demon that's now manifesting you can't become terrified and run away you know obviously then the person's situation is uh you left him in a very dangerous position so again the church would say anyone can ask god to help somebody who's afflicted but at least from a catholic perspective only the bishop or the priest that he's authorized should be giving commands to demons but again there is a certain level of authority that we all have just based on our our baptism into christ because ultimately again it's jesus as i said earlier who is the main actor he's not a bystander in this prayer so gina comes back and she asked what is the what is the reason the catholic church lets you speak out on this matter it's an opportunity just to educate and teach people you know when i you mentioned earlier i think you know when i was appointed i became one of 12 exorcists in the united states that was uh officially appointed any priest can be called upon by his bishop to do an exorcism but some bishops will say you're the go-to person in my diocese but uh there now there's more than 125 because the church realizes that if she doesn't speak out on this matter to help educate people then perhaps people will turn to the wrong sources to try to find the help that they're looking for you know there's a lot of so-called professional exorcists people may rely on a median or a psychic but again oftentimes in these situations the person who's already broken or fractured is just going to be broken and fractured even more because ultimately christ is the one who's going to bring healing into the life of the person who's afflicted by evil it can come from no other source it's always christ we think of john's gospel you know jesus says i am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me so the focus must always be on christ and again speaking about the topic publicly is an opportunity for people to have a clear understanding of what the church believes and teaches on this subject especially at a time i think when there's a greater fascination with the devil today you look at a lot of programs and articles you know there's a lot of fascination with what the devil is trying to do and hopefully by speaking on the topic the fascination really then is refocused on the power and the presence of god in our world today yeah i mean there's a reason that my previous interview with you is you know coming up on i guess 700 000 views at this point probably in the next few days there's a people are very very interested in this kind of thing so question from uh keenan t and this one is a really interesting one what do you think of ouija boards do you have any stories ouija boards that would fall under the the occult so again somebody's relying on a game board to try to give them answers to things and the church would say that the power that's behind that would be the power of the evil one so they're not like these friendly spirits out there that are just trying to you know give you some good guidance and direction so the power behind them is of an evil nature you know oftentimes when people engage in things like ouija boards perhaps at first they hear something that's intriguing it piques their curiosity but then that curiosity released to reliance you know playing with the ouija board for an example and then it becomes a substitute for god in the person's life you know the book of deuteronomy in the old testament in chapter 18 verses 10 11 and 12 talks about not finding a substitute for god but always living out the very first of the ten commandments where god says i am the lord your god you shall have no false gods you know things like ouija boards and whatnot people are looking for a substitute for god you know we did that as humans from the very beginning you think of the israelites in the desert you know when moses went up the mountain to get you know the the ten commandments when he came back down what were they doing worshiping a golden calf so humans today always trying to find a substitute for god and a ouija board is one of those substitutes and it will always end in disaster i think a lot of young kids today play with these because they don't maybe they want to test it out and see if it would be fun or i don't know freaky yeah sometimes it's like well it's entertaining they may not understand fully the the demonic component that's behind it i will say that just because somebody played with the ouija board once doesn't mean that somehow i think they're possessed but i do think that people need to think about the choices that they're making in their life and if they realize they've done something wrong the key ingredient again is repent repent you know if you read the the minor prophets in the old testament what were they constantly saying to the israelites repent and make a return to god repent and make a return to god and even an exorcism basically is the same thing if somebody has done something to create an entry point to evil all we have to do is repent tell god we're sorry you know and god's always ready to forgive because the greatest thing that we can know in life is not the sin that we commit not the evil that we engage in but the greatest thing that we can come to know is god's love and mercy for each and every one of us because the human person is god's created greatest creation we're created in the image and likeness of god and i think that's why the devil tries to afflict us so much because in his own twisted sense he believes that somehow by tormenting humans who are in god's image and likeness that he believes that he's tormenting and afflicting god himself so here's a question from raymond and this one is a little bit off topic as well but i'm curious to see what your thoughts are on it he says i live on long island and our parishes have been riddled with sexual abuse cases rockville center diocese is bankrupt how does the church fix this yeah i would say that the abuse that go ahead that is going on in the church is certainly horrific there's certainly no excuse for it there's no place in the church for anyone who's involved in the abuse of children or anyone and i think that you know i would say as horrific as this is this could be an opportunity for the church to even purify itself you know every time the devil does something that he believes is advancing his kingdom may be trying to destroy the church from within by these priests who have been abusing children you know the church can take ownership of her own sinfulness and use this as an opportunity to cleanse the church and in doing so you know perhaps advance the kingdom of god even further you know i believe that abuse is perhaps more prevalent in our society than we realize and the church rather than trying to cover up her sins needs to own up to them and set the example for society in general on how we need to repent because i think the danger is that people look at the sins of the church and they want to discount the message of the church even though certain messengers may be flawed the message of the church can never be flawed because it's a message that comes from god himself and so the church needs to deal with her sinfulness so that people don't begin discounting the gospel you know you look at faith today that's in decline in the lives of so many people and i think the church also has to look in the mirror and say how have we contributed to this loss of faith in society by our own sinfulness and certainly child abuse is at the very top of that list well i really like the exa the the point that you make about the church leading as uh leading by example i think that that's a great way of of going about it and i wish i wish we would see more of that you know um all right uh next question is from mitch de guzman he says i almost got to new age teachings and law of attraction and recently watched testimonies that it is demonic please enlighten us and others why law of attraction shouldn't be practiced the law of attraction i don't know if we can get a definition of that just so i'm very clear what they mean by that i'm not exactly sure either i i was hoping that you knew yeah before commenting i would want to have the person give a definition of what they mean by that all right mitch if you're watching this and if you're still watching live then uh try to put it in the live chat i'll see if i can get to it all right uh next question is from dodo can you exercise sexual perversions such as sadomasochism or same-sex attractiveness well that would presume that those are the result of some type of demonic cause and the church has certainly does not give that definition to that so the question would be i think even in a broader sense are all the problems in the world demon-related but we also have to realize that we have personal choices so all sins you know we can't always say the devil made me do it we do have personal choices and we should always make the distinction between things that come about through demon possession and maybe things that just come about by one's own personal choice so in those cases you know even you know human sexuality you know the church recognizes the fact that we are all god's children even the bishops of here in the united states you know many years ago came out with a document called all god's children recognizing that we're called to love each and every person regardless of their sexual orientation or how they identify themselves but i think we should not be too quick just to label the fact that somebody is dealing with some sexual identity issues just to say that that's all demon related i think that's a path that the church would not go down so next question is from victor ku he says and this is another good question have you ever experienced a repeat demon i have not but i mentioned earlier that you know i had encountered the demon leviathan in an exorcism and in talking with one of my colleagues another exorcist here in the united states he told me that he encountered the same demon leviathan and a person that he was working with you know just because the demon is cast out of somebody doesn't mean that somehow they're destroyed at that moment you know when the angels sell you know god's permitting them to roam the earth if you will until the end of time so when an exorcism occurs it's just that the connection between that person and that particular demon or demons is broken but it does not mean that those demons have been destroyed so mariella i think mariela garza asked i struggle with reading the bible i get frustrated and i can't read it for very long could this be related to demonic activity it could be in the sense that the devil doesn't really want you to come to a good understanding of the word of god you know most of us don't have to worry about the extraordinary activity of the devil meaning the infestation the vexation the obsession or the possession but all of us need to be aware of how the devil may try to impact us in our daily lives so that i would call that the ordinary activity of the devil the ordinary activity of the devil maybe would cause us to be distracted so that we don't become fixated on the things of god but that we get caught up in the things of this world you know when it comes to the ordinary activity of the devil i believe that he has a four-stage plan of attack on all of us that might touch on what the uh the caller is mentioning namely deception they're all d words by the way deception division diversion discouragement so deception the devil gets us to buy into his lives when that happens it leads to division we're all broken and when we're broken it leads to diversion we're no longer on the path of god and when we're no longer on the path of god it leads to discouragement because the human person i believe has the innate desire for god saint augustine said you know our hearts are restless o lord until they rest in you so we have that strong desire for god and i think the devil would try to short-circuit that and certainly we foster our desire for god through his holy word in reading the bible and the devil can try to short circuit that by perhaps causing us to become bored to lose focus whatever it might be which is why i think it's important if you're going to do want to read the bible then perhaps join a bible study at a a church because doing it with other people again it goes back to that notion their strength in numbers even in my years as a priest in fact this june 1st i will have been a priest for 30 years but as the pastor of a church i have always led bible study in my parishes so every wednesday night from seven to eight we do bible study anybody can come in we don't follow any program we simply open up the word of god we read it together and we just talk about how it's speaking to us at that particular moment so none of us has to become necessarily biblical scholars but all of us should know the word of god and have a better understanding how to apply it to our lives and i think doing that in a group setting is very beneficial next question is from januard 81 if god does not want the demons to have access to us then why did he not create a separation why does he leave us vulnerable i would say that he has not left his vulnerable because he's given us his son jesus christ he's not left as vulnerable he's given us the remedy to defeat the devil but again like the angels when they were created and were given free will the human person has free will as as well so god wants us to freely choose him he doesn't force himself upon us so god has given us exactly what we need to defeat the devil but again if people are not strong in their faith you know first peter says be sober be vigilant your opponent the devil is a roaring lion seeks one whom he may devour resist him solid in your faith a lot of people today were not solid in our faith and so that's giving the devil the upper hand so we are not vulnerable if we're solid in our faith in living out our commitment to christ and again if we fall short we repent we own we own up to that we take something that's perceived as a weakness and we turn it into a strength saint paul when i am weak then i am strong so we take something the devil is trying to do and we use it against him by using it as an avenue to draw closer to god and have a more solid relationship with him so i would say that god has not left us vulnerable he's given us the tools he's given us christ that we have to make the choice for christ so i think to to kind of flesh out some i think what may be behind jannard's question is why does god allow this kind of suffering to take place because when someone is demon-possessed and the things that i've that i've heard you know that go along with that it seems like that person is really really suffering and so why would god allow something like that to happen to somebody seems like he could prevent that pretty easily by just like not allowing demon possession so i think that might be kind of what they're they're getting at yeah but you can also look at that even on even different levels is why is there pain and suffering in the world why is there sickness in the world and the fact is we live in a fallen world you know we're all children of adam and eve if you will we think of original sin and we're all you know impacted by that the choice that they made to rebel against god even in baptism you know we become a new creation but the effects of sin are still present in our world you know that's through disease and sickness and the reality of sin is even manifested in the afflictions that people have from the devil and his demons but it's important to note that god does not abandon us in the midst of our suffering but god unites himself with our suffering you know the bible tells us that jesus was like us in all things but sin so jesus had the gamut of emotions jesus you know he wept at the death of his friend lazarus so god knows what it's like to suffer and i think he unites himself to us even more and you know from a catholic perspective we talk about you know the re the uh the fact that suffering has a redemptive nature to it so there is if you think a look at the cross for example if there wasn't meaning in the suffering of christ on the cross then it makes no sense whatsoever so even when people suffer god can make something good come out of that uh next question and this one is something that i just haven't even thought about myself she wanna nokia is it possible to be possessed by a good spirit for a time of course a bigger question might be what does one mean by a good spirit by an angel so either one is an angelic creature whose will is united with god so what they're doing now is no longer you know their actions are no longer independent from god you know an angel why is an angel depicted with wings for example it's purely spiritual it has no body like we do but angels are always depicted with wings because it shows their readiness to always do the will of god you know in the bible when angels appear the message they're bringing is not theirs it's a message that's coming from god so being possessed by a good spirit what does one mean by that an angel the holy spirit and then in that case if it's something good i don't know that i would use the word possessed and we talk about somebody being filled with the holy spirit but i don't think that we would use the word possessed because possessed almost means like somehow the person or yeah the demon has just taken control of a person against their will so to speak but if it's the holy spirit if it's the power of god acting through his angels then i don't know that the word possessed is a good one i think i would say filled with the holy spirit and again to remember that the angels wills are always doing the will of god there's no longer anything separate so programming ninja sensei uh asked the question earlier on but i didn't really get my uh i didn't really understand it so i didn't put it up on the screen yet so maybe you can help me figure out what uh what the question is here he says aquinas saw reason as a search tool for finding god and right monotheistic religion slash religious religious tradition and then he says uh for example luther versus catholic although complicated through the fall in eden how to reason without demon does that make sense to you is it a question or is a statement it looks like some reason yeah the human person the fact that we can reason you know we're searching for ultimate meaning and purpose in life and ultimately that is only found in our relationship with god because god is the one who gives ultimate meaning and purpose to human existence so without god human existence is pointless because we have nothing greater to point to other than ourselves all right so he clarified in a in a next comment here i'm really glad that i asked him in the live chat he says okay he says reasoning your way to faith is possible and maybe he's referencing aquinas here but how uh but how prevent that your thought process is stored distorted so i think the next one might might be the key here how do you know if a demon brings you to say judaism instead of catholicism well i don't think a demon is going to lead anyone into faith which would with the ultimate destination being a relationship with god so a demon is only going to choose a path for somebody away from god not towards god and you know again you look at judaism you look at catholicism you look at christianity other christian faith traditions the end goal is always god and the devil is not going to put anybody on a pathway where the ultimate destination is god he wants to put him on a path where the ultimate destination is himself and destruction all right so ian asks uh inner locutions have you heard of that have you heard of inner locutions interlocutions yes some of the yes just just to finish out his comment here any description of what they feel like and how to determine if it's from god or something parading around an inner locution means that somehow god is speaking directly into the person's mind some visionaries that claim within the catholic tradition to have you know apparitions of the blessed mother or the saints even if jesus himself would say that it's happening only in their mind somehow it's a direct communication between god and the mind of the person you know god doesn't speak by language per se but again it's how we communicate with one another so an inner locution would be something that one believes that they're seeing within their mind that they are attributing coming directly from god you know mystics of the church might fall into this category you know trying to determine whether or not somebody is having an inner locution is it coming from god is it something demonic is it a mental health issue this is why the church would say that there needs to be a you know many people weighing in on the matter you know the person obviously you know having some type of physical examination by their medical doctor trying to rule out any medical cause physical cause having a psychiatric evaluation is there some type of mental health issue at play here you know is there a spiritual cause so then you're obviously talking to a priest but again the priest the doctor the psychiatrist should all be working together but ultimately in any message that one believes that they're receiving cannot contradict what's already out there the catholic church would say there's no new revelation you know everything we need to know was fulfilled the person of jesus christ the son of god so there's nothing new to come after that we can be led to a deeper understanding of the truth of christ but there's nothing to be added to it because if there was something to be added to it then we're saying that christ was deficient and that certainly goes against at the very core of christianity so i've noticed a question here by keisten luke i think that's the way you say his name he says i experienced the devil attacking me he tried to get me to give up my life i am now a christian because i ran to god how do you describe my experience well i would say that you did you took what the devil was trying to do to you and you used it against him so he was doing something to try to get you to destroy yourself but then you flip that around and use it as an opportunity to run to god and really that's what we can do somebody asked earlier you know why does god allow demon possession certainly there's a lot of suffering but that can also be an opportunity for people to run to god themselves you know oftentimes people can grow up in maybe a christian home they don't ever really take their faith seriously maybe they say i'm a christian because you know my parents raised me in the church they took me to church they had me baptized but at some point the faith has to become our own we have to make that personal choice and we have to embrace christ for ourselves and you know maybe the devil believed in this case that uh you were at a point where he could get you to run away from god but then you use that as an opportunity to draw closer to him so again anytime the devil is trying to do something to advance his kingdom we all have the opportunity to flip it around and to use it against him and advance the kingdom of god and i think this is what kesten did in this case yeah in my view comfort can lead to complacency and it's it's there's a there's a quote that i think about a lot from cs lewis uh and i forget the exact way that he's phrased it but it's something like suffering is god's megaphone to like get us to really i don't know you know think about what's going on in our lives otherwise we kind of just are coasting along and not really trying to improve ourselves or anything but suffering is the way that god really speaks to us and can get us to to really focus and think about things that are most important and the way that we can respond in different situations so suffering is a great way of getting you know and suffer it's it's diff it's sometimes easy when we're having a conversation like this when we're philosophizing or when we're thinking you know analytically about suffering it can be tempting to like distance ourselves away from the reality of suffering and suffering you know when you're experiencing it it's just it can be visceral it can be very uh depressing i mean it can it can really affect you in ways and not just you but other people that you know and so it can kind of seem like uh terse like we're not really taking it seriously and we're just trying to like explain it away but i don't think that that's something that needs to happen when we're thinking sort of seriously and and what this all means and everything but yeah i think that uh suffering can be you know even something like demonic possession can be something that god uses to bring people into a uh a saving knowledge of himself so i think that that's that's right there all right uh mitch de guzman has another super chat that he sent in and i didn't really see a question here but i suppose we can just get your thoughts on this he says l-o-a and i'm hoping that you know what that is an acronym for is a belief system that teaches to have power to affect supernatural events with meditation it involves tarots crystals spirit guides etc i suppose the question maybe is what are your thoughts well first of all i'm not sure exactly what loa stands for but anything that tries to affect supernatural events and anything that's supernatural only comes from god because god is above nature because god is creator of everything so god is the only one really outside above nature so anything that's supernatural can only be attributed to god but i would say that in things that involve terrors crystals spirit guides etc those are all things that again i would attribute to the occult things that are denounced in the book of deuteronomy there again in chapter 18 so i would say that we cannot use things that are associated with evil to somehow bring good about so anything that's inherently evil cannot bring about a good and i would say things like tarot cards and crystals are inherently evil so that there's no way that anything good can come from that this was actually uh i was i was going to throw up a comment from someone else talking about sleep paralysis and then we just had someone send in a super chat about it so i'm going to pull this one up and this is going to be our last question for today he says in this one mirror i'm not even going to attempt the name here he says i'm a christian i had a sleep paralysis dream once in which two demons uh invested my dream what do you think about such demons what do what do you do against uh to i suppose combat them how do you yeah what do you do against them you know for one that have a dream about a demon i guess i would ask the question what's what's going on in their life you know is there some internal struggle is there some type of faith crisis because again if demons are trying to intrude into one's dreams and there has to be something else going on in their life but again trying to understand that and balancing it with one's relationship with god is so important but again i would say the person identifies himself as a christian so the devil obviously believes that this occurrence is going to rattle the person somewhat and again use it against him don't be rattled by this experience but use this experience to draw even closer to god so the other question that i saw i was going to say the devil plays on a person's memory and imagination so there's something going on i would say in the person's life that the devil believes is a weak link in the [ __ ] of their spiritual armor so he's trying to get a foothold in a person's life so scott p asked the this is this was his question about sleep paralysis uh so we'll get to this one and then this will be our last one he says please ask him if the phenomenon of sleep paralysis is the feeling of demonic presence i would say that a lot of people that i've talked to that have had sleep paralysis have that sense of the presence of some demonic entity i think in the the medical world they may come up with different explanations but i've had people that would say see sleep paralysis came about you know maybe they kind of woke up there was a presence of a demon in their room and they were just paralyzed there was no way that they could even move and there was a sense of just being really really terrified you know when people experience that the best thing to do is to pray you call upon the holy spirit because wherever the holy spirit is present an unclean spirit cannot remain so i always tell people if somehow you believe there's some type of demonic presence around you just invoke the holy spirit and you know if a person really hasn't done anything wrong to bring about a presence of evil then god just may be permitting it to happen as an opportunity for the person to show their fidelity to god and i call that demonic oppression oppression is a gift from god that might sound kind of strange that god would allow us to be afflicted by evil but again god can permit that as an opportunity for us to show our fidelity to god because it's easy to be a person of faith if everything is going along great but you know if we're going through pain and suffering you know then perhaps there might be the temptation to abandon our relationship with god we were talking earlier about suffering you know and sleep paralysis can be a form of suffering i was thinking of psalm 23 even though i walk through the dark valley i fear no evil for you are at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage i think any time that we feel like we're being afflicted by evil we haven't done anything to bring that on we just have to remember that christ is with us he's at our side during this time of darkness and if we call upon him then he'll come and evil will flee so there's there's one last com and this is not a question but it it is a comment from somebody expressing some incredulity in the live chat and this is from a skeptic digital gnosis says i can't really believe this kind of medieval superstitious nonsense is still being promoted in the modern world what are your thoughts on this comment well my comment would be there's always people that say seeing is believing but from a faith perspective it's believing is seeing so i think it's we're coming from two different viewpoints if somebody has the position of faith they believe in these types of things people that perhaps say seeing is believing maybe coming from more of a scientific background will kind of doubt that but i would say that people's you know doubting of god and of the spiritual world doesn't make it any less real or relevant and again one of the main basis for what we believe comes from the bible itself which we believe is the word of god so it's the narrative if you will that we follow there's a lot of people today that follow all kinds of different narratives you know we hear that in society today you know where's the science in that where's the science in that or you know today people discuss the constitutionality of something and there's always different kind of viewpoints one way or the other but for me you know if one's going to be a christian the narrative that we're going to follow is the word of god and within the word of god it speaks of the reality of things that are seen and unseen visible and invisible certainly of the spirit world all right i think that's going to do it for us today and we could you know actually we i have plans to have father vince back on so i i'm pretty certain this isn't his last uh appearance on capturing christianity we'll probably do some more work together but uh in the meantime thank you so much for coming back on this has been a lot of fun is there anything you'd like to leave with the audience before we close out i would just uh reinforce the notion that if we're standing right in our relationship with god then evil is nothing to fear amen all right and with that we are going to leave it so until next time we will see you guys later have a great rest of your day have a great weekend uh apparently there's like a cold front coming through the whole nation right now i live down in houston and it's about to get in some really cold territory that where no one here is is prepared for we're it's about to be in the teens and we're like we have no idea what to do so uh just uh yeah anyways hope you guys stay safe hope you stay warm and we'll see you in the next capturing christianity video see you later [Music] foreign

Channel: Capturing Christianity

Views: 47,558

Rating: 4.8926406 out of 5

Keywords: capturing christianity, cameron bertuzzi, apologetics, god, atheism

Id: YBPvRR5H7aU

Length: 88min 28sec (5308 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 11 2021