Mike Signorelli - Casting Out Demons For Beginners
- Watch
- Donate
Summary:
Pastor Mike teaches that every believer has biblical authority to cast out demons, straight from Mark 16:17–18 where Jesus says these signs «will» follow those who believe—including driving out demons. He explains it’s not about personal power or formulas but staying under Jesus' authority while relying fully on the Holy Spirit for the power, using analogies like a police badge and gun or a big sister borrowing Dad’s authority. The mind-blowing closer is that beginners should start with self-deliverance—casting demons out of yourself first—because that’s where he saw the most dramatic freedom in his own life.
Welcome to Casting Out Demons for Beginners
Welcome to «Casting Out Demons for Beginners.» My name is Pastor Mike Cignarelli, and you may have seen me with Isaiah Saldivar, Vlad Savchuk, or maybe Alexander Pagani. We have been affectionately dubbed the Demon Slayers, and I’m here to finally answer the question: If you’ve ever felt intimidated by the idea of casting out demons and asked, «How do I even get started?» This is «Casting Out Demons for Beginners.» I want you to stick around until the end because this is going to blow your mind, and I’m saving the best for last.
Every Believer Has Authority: Mark 16:17–18
Okay, this isn’t just something for special people or super Christians or people who are highly trained. Actually, the Bible says that all believers should cast out demons in Mark chapter 16, verses 17 and 18. Your name is in there! I don’t know if you know this, but if you are a believer, it says, «And these signs will not maybe, not might”—it says they will accompany those who believe. That’s you! You believe in Jesus! So, in my name, they will cast out demons. Not might, not like, „Oh, there are some stubborn demons that they can’t get out.“ No, it says they will. They will speak in new tongues. It’s a gift of the Holy Spirit; it’s not a reward. You can’t earn it, right? You can’t earn a gift. Verse 18 says, „And they will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it won’t hurt them.“ In other words, it’s saying there is divine protection for those who do war in Christ’s name, and they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover. So, if you haven’t seen sick people recover, it’s not because God can’t do it through you; it’s probably because you have not allowed Him, by a simple act of obedience, to lay your hands on people and pray.
The Authority Analogy: Dad and Daughters
So, you have authority. I want to give you this analogy, and I think this is really, really, really going to help you. You have authority through Jesus Christ, and if you are not under the authority of Jesus, you cannot cast out demons. But if you are under the authority of Jesus, you can. So, this is the basics. Let me just say it like this: I have two daughters, Bella and Everly, and when sometimes they’re arguing, they come to me, and they’re like, „Dad, my little sister won’t stop annoying me.“ I tell the big sister, „You go back and tell your sister Dad said to stop it.“ Then when she goes back to her little sister, now her little sister listens to her. Not because she has authority, but because I, her dad, have authority, and I gave it to her. So when the little sister hears her big sister say, „Hey, Dad said you better stop or he’s going to deal with you, ” she’s like, „Oh, I’m going to act right, ” and the situation changes.
So, when you are effective—Is this helping you? —when you are effective at casting out demons, it’s not because you are this powerful person, but because you have been given power and authority by Jesus, and the demons respond to your dad through you. Okay, I know this is helping somebody. I’m just starting with the basics in this brief teaching, and make sure you stick around all the way to the end, okay? Because I believe this is going to be a life-changing teaching for you.
Authority and Power: The Police Officer Analogy
Okay, Matthew chapter 12, verse 28 says, „But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.“ Here’s a very good analogy that I want you to really get in your spirit: imagine that you are a police officer. The badge that you have, that everybody can visibly see, is your authority, and your gun that you have is the power that you use to act on your authority. So the badge is a visible sign that you have authority, but then how you enforce it—the power that you use to enforce it—is your gun. In this sense, Jesus is the authority, and the Holy Spirit is your power—your gun—to enforce it.
So, if you just go out and you’re shooting without a badge, you’re a criminal. But if you go out and you’re fighting crime with nothing but a badge, the criminals will easily overpower you. So, to have Jesus without the Holy Spirit, you’re powerless. You have authority, but you have nothing to enforce it. But then, to actually just say you have the Holy Spirit but not have the authority of Jesus, you are actually just shooting without a badge—you’re a criminal. There are people who have tried to cast out demons without belonging to Jesus, and the demons are like, „We know Paul, but who are you?“ Come on! I’ve been in deliverance situations where we are casting demons out of multitudes of people, and I’ve had people even on my own team that demons have said, „You’re an imposter.“ That’s why I love the ministry of deliverance: because you can preach from the gift of preaching, even though you don’t have a relationship with the Jesus you’re preaching about. Come on! You can sing perfect pitch and sound like a good worship leader but not even have a relationship with the Jesus you’re worshiping. But deliverance is kind of different because you can try to cast demons out, but there has got to be a reality of your reliance on the Holy Spirit.
Discernment: Demon or Flesh?
So I want to go a little bit deeper; we’re almost done with this teaching on the basics of deliverance, but you’ve got to stick around because, again, right at the end of this, I’m going to give you one thing that you can do today, and you will see massive results if you’ve been stuck.
Okay, so let’s start by this: now you’re praying for someone. You’ve got your badge, and you’ve got your gun. You have your authority, and you have your power. But how do you know if it’s a demon? Now I want to speak from personal experience doing deliverance. You have to constantly be diagnosing and assessing, which requires discernment through the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it’s a demon, and sometimes it’s an issue of the flesh; it’s discipline that’s needed, not deliverance.
Well, Pastor Mike, how do I know whether it’s discipline or deliverance? The Bible tells us in Galatians chapter 5, verse 24, to crucify the flesh, and in Mark chapter 16, to cast out demons. You cannot crucify a demon, and you cannot cast out the flesh, so we must increase in our discernment of which one it is. The way that I’ve learned this, as I’ve been in the game for a long time (many of you guys know I’ve been casting demons out of people for over 20 years, which is crazy to say), on one hand, if you never think it’s a demon, but you are perpetually giving in to the desires of the flesh, there is a very high likelihood that you have opened up, through repeated sin, a doorway to the demonic. We use Scripture and we use discernment from the Holy Spirit to determine what that situation calls for.
David vs. Saul: Repentance Closes Doors
The analogy I always give regarding whether or not it’s a demon or it’s the flesh is simply this: you have David and you have Saul. David was quick to repent. He sinned, he made mistakes, but he was quick to repent. Saul was unrepentant, which means that the sin in his life was perpetual. We see that Saul, King Saul, was vexed by demons, but we do not have a biblical account that David was vexed by demons. So what’s the difference? Because they’re both sinners. The difference was this: Saul opened a door and left it open, while David opened a door and immediately slammed it closed through repentance.
Imagine your home: if you left the doorway to your house open all the time, maybe nothing comes in, but eventually a squirrel, rabbit, deer, rat, mouse, or raccoon is going to come in. It’s just a matter of time. So when somebody tells me, „I think it’s just a problem with the flesh, ” I would be asking them, „Well, how long has that door been open?“ Because you’ve dramatically increased the likelihood that it’s demonic.
No Formula: Rely on the Holy Spirit
Now let’s move on. You’re praying for someone; what should you say in this deliverance situation? What do you actually say? When you go back to the biblical account of Jesus Himself doing deliverance, casting demons out of people, it’s not that formulaic. He simply has dialogue with demons: „Why are you here to torment me?“ They’re asking Him these questions, and He casts them out into pigs. You have these different situations; He casts out the spirit of infirmity, and so their sickness is connected to the demonic. You see this, but you don’t have any biblical account of Jesus teaching a formula. Why? Well, I have a tremendous revelation on this, and this is just the basics. We’re almost done with this teaching.
Let me tell you why a formula was not given, and I’ve learned this over the years. You do not get better at deliverance; you become more surrendered to the Holy Spirit. That’s it! The Bible says the Holy Spirit will teach you all things, and when you are religious, you’re always trying to learn rituals and formulas and the right words to say. But witches and warlocks say the right words; they have incantations and spells that they cast that require the right words. That’s not what happens in deliverance. There is no like, „Hey, just say this, repeat this.“ As a matter of fact, you must be reliant on your relationship with the Holy Spirit, who will then reveal to you what you’re dealing with. That’s why it’s important, like John the Baptist, to say, „I decrease so that God can increase in me and through me.“
So it’s not about getting better; it’s about becoming more surrendered. Come on, hit the thumbs up right now if that just really helped you! Seriously, drop a comment and let me know what you’re learning in this brief teaching about the beginnings of deliverance. I want to just blast through a few more questions because I know that you probably have more questions right now than anything.
Manifestations and Discernment
But as you’re doing deliverance, the Holy Spirit is showing you what demon you’re dealing with. Sometimes there’s a necessity to call them out by name and begin to do deliverance in that way.
But then will someone who has a demon always manifest? What does the word „manifest“ mean? It’s a demonstration of the personality connected to the demon. Oftentimes, demons of lust and perversion will cause people to contort and manifest lustful behaviors. I’ve seen that many times. I’ve placed my hand—I’ve got chills even saying this out loud—on a young woman once who began to act sexual and physically grab my hand. It was like an extremely bizarre situation. But demons are disembodied personalities, and so if it’s a demon of rage, that demon will manifest rage while you’re trying to cast it out. If it’s lust, you may see lust. Whatever the personality is will be a part of the manifestation, and that will help give you discernment while you’re trying to see, „Okay, I can visibly see, but can I spiritually see that behavior?“ and that points to the name, and I can begin to cast this demon out.
What Prevents Effectiveness in Deliverance
What are the things that prevent me from being effective in deliverance? I’m going to say this, and then we’re going to end this teaching. Thanks for sticking around through this entire video. One of the things that will stop you from being effective—because it’s not the power of God stopping you, okay? —is actually pride in your personal life, unconfessed sin in your own personal life, or it could be a lack of knowledge, which just means in a certain situation, you didn’t know what to do. You haven’t built your reliance on the Holy Spirit, and you’re doing ministry out of your head or even out of your heart, which is the emotional realm—the soulish realm—but not the spirit realm.
I’ve seen people, because of pride, unconfessed sin, and a lack of knowledge, prevent them from being effective in deliverance.
The Best for Last: Start with Self-Deliverance
So you may actually have to go first, and that’s why I saved the best for last. In the basics of deliverance, the first person you should get good at doing deliverance on is yourself. That’s how it started with me: „Loose thyself.“ The Scriptures teach us that there is a necessity to unlock the shackles and chains and loose thyself. The very first deliverance I ever did was my own. I was vomiting uncontrollably in my shower as a teenager as I went through the process of breaking curses off of my life and then casting demons out of myself. It was so crazy, so bizarre, but so liberating, and such a confirmation of how real this all really is.