Sid Roth

SID: Rabbi Schneider, how might demons manifest themselves to people and in what ways, and some, I understand, they think it’s themselves and it’s really not.

RABBI SCHNEIDER: Absolutely. That is such a key for us to realize that many of the problems that we’re dealing with, things like fear, sadness, anger, addiction, these are not just natural problems. These are supernatural problems and that’s one of the keys to getting deliverance over darkness is to recognize that many of the thoughts that we have that cause defeat and torment in one’s life are not originating from within, they’re originating from the outside. I like to describe a demon as a personal evil with intelligence that seeks to occupy space, either space in our mind so that it’s affecting our thought life, or even space in our body. And when someone is walking around let’s say depressed all the time, they have to realize that God is happy. So if God is happy and they’re depressed, where is the depression coming from? And although often times there are some natural reasons, what happens is, is that demons connect to personal vulnerabilities, personal weaknesses in our own life and they make a natural problem a supernatural problem that requires a supernatural solution and a supernatural activation to break it off.

SID: Will demons just leave on their own if you do nothing about it?

RABBI SCHNEIDER: Absolutely not. Demons are intruders and they will not leave on their own. Sid, I think about a dream that I had not too long ago and in this dream I was living in this really dilapidated house. It was really small, you know, maybe like a 15 by 15-foot room. It was old. It was kind of falling apart. You could feel the atmosphere in there. It was dark and depressing and I was sad in that space. And then 20 yards away from me, from this dilapidated house I was living in, I could see another house and this other house was like a 3000-square foot home, it was brand new, it was contemporary, it was clean, it was attractive. It had a light happy feeling to it. And in the dream, Sid, I knew that that beautiful house was mine and yet here I was living in this dilapidated space. Then I realized, why was I living in this dilapidated space when that beautiful home 20 yards away was mine that I could be living in. And of course, houses represent a place that we live. And I realized as the dream continued that the reason I was not taking possession of the beautiful house is because there were demons living in the home. I could see the demons in the dream. They were in the form of human beings, but I could see by the energy that these human beings were giving off that were in my house, violent, hateful, intense energy. Because those demons were in the home as squatters, they didn’t have a right to be there and they weren’t going to leave on their own, I realized that my fear of going into that house and taking occupancy of it was what was keeping me from living in that space. Eventually I got so sick and tired of living in that dilapidated small depressed space, I made up my mind I was going to take possession of that beautiful home that the Lord gave me. So in the dream, Sid, I went to that beautiful house, again 20 yards away, I stood outside the door and I waited for the head demon to come out.

Male voice: This house is mine. No demon can stop you from taking possession of this house.

RABBI SCHNEIDER: When he came out I took a hold of him, threw him on the ground and I just started on him, ramming my fist in his face, and at first, it seemed like nothing was happening. I felt totally impotent, powerless, but I was so committed to getting free, so tired of being sick and tired, I just kept punching. And all of a sudden, all the air went out from him and he was gone, and I was able to take possession of my home. But I had to confront him and make him leave. He wasn’t going to leave on his own.

SID: There are ways that most are ignorant of. Yet these demons try to occupy our homes. What are some of the openings that we have that we may not even be aware of?

RABBI SCHNEIDER: Yes, in other words, how can they gain entrance?

SID: Yeah.

RABBI SCHNEIDER: And things for example, like unforgiveness. I learned about this again from a prophetic dream. And as a new believer, you know I read Jesus’ words years ago, “Forgive and you shall be forgiven”, and I thought, Lord, won’t you just forgive me. And I really didn’t understand how important it as for me to forgive people. And what happened was the Lord taught me this lesson through a dream. I was in another house, completely different dream, but again took place in a house. Remember, Jesus spoke about the person that was delivered from demons and the demon left, and he said, “If that house that he was evicted from wasn’t put in order…” So sometimes our spiritual space is what the Bible uses to symbolize a house. So in other words, I’m in this house and I’m being tormented in this house. There is something behind me that was just tormenting and oppressing me. I couldn’t see what it was. I could just feel the oppression. And in the home I kept on running from room to room to try to escape this tormenter behind me. No matter what room I went into, this tormentor wouldn’t leave. Finally after this went on for some time, I felt the gaze of God come down upon me. I literally felt the gaze of the eye of the Father from Heaven come down upon me, Sid, in the dream. And then the Lord showed me, as his gaze was upon me, somebody in my life that I hadn’t forgiven and he said to me, “Release them.” And as soon as I released them that tormentor was gone. So demons can gain access through unforgiveness. When we stay in unforgiveness we’re legally opening up a place where a demon can get in and torment us. The same thing with willful sin. When someone is willfully living outside of God’s moral boundaries, he places himself in a position where demons have access to him. A big one is generational spirits, spirits that have been in our families.

SID: Like if there’s divorce for the last three generations, you don’t have to be a mental giant.

RABBI SCHNEIDER: Exactly. And you know, even things like depression. You know, if your mom was depressed and your dad was depressed, chances are you’re going to have to deal with that spirit and break it out of your existence, out of your life.

SID: You teach that we should refuse to be intimidated by these spirits. What do you mean?

RABBI SCHNEIDER: Well what I mean is that we know that Jesus is Lord. Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. He reigns and because he reigns I refuse to allow a demon to have dominion over me. I see this in my own life and see this when I exercise demons out of other people. When we know that they have to leave because Jesus is Lord and we’re his, and he’s ours, they will leave. You know, it’s like I heard you say before, Sid, they won’t leave until they know that you know they have to leave.

SID: Rabbi Schneider, there are people all over the world right now that are struggling with bad thoughts, with demonic problems, with sickness. When we come back I want you to tell us things that God has taught you so that they can be free. Be right back.