Sid Roth - Self Deliverance from Demons
Sid Roth: Hello. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. Why does a rabbi get involved in deliverance, people that have evil spirits? Why does a rabbi say, it's so simple, you can take care of it yourself. Why does a rabbi say, everyone needs deliverance in areas of their life? Why does a rabbi say you will have unprecedented peace when you're totally free? Anyone interested? Rabbi Schneider, when was the first time you were exposed to deliverance to demons?
Rabbi Schneider: It was the mid-1980s, Sid. I was pastoring a church. There was someone that was really manifesting demons. I was called to the scene. I brought another pastor with me. I had never been exposed to it before. The only thing I knew how to do was scream. Hopefully they'd leave. And we left that episode and the other pastor that I brought with me said to me, he said, "You know, when the light is sharp you don't have to cut so hard".
Sid Roth: You learned a lesson well. But then you have this Messianic Jewish congregation and you notice a lot of problems and you decide you're going to help these people with a course. But then that created a problem. Explain.
Rabbi Schneider: Exactly. Well I became aware of the fact that we're moving deeper into the End Times more than ever. People have been infiltrated with demonic spirits. And so I got some training in this area to minister deliverance to people and we set up a team. I trained a team of people in our congregation to minister deliverances, about an eight-hour process that we bring people through. What happened, Sid, was so many people were requesting to go through the process that we ended up in a short period of time being booked out a year in advance. And every week I'd run into people that would say, I need help, I need help, I need to go through deliverance. And I'd say, "You know what, let's get you through the deliverance process", realizing in my heart they're going to wait a year. And I was grieved about this I began to pray, well what can I do to solve this. I tried to raise up another deliverance team. I couldn't find the right people with the right availability. Kept on seeking, Lord, how can I help these people, they need help today, not a year from now. And the Lord led me to start teaching on what I call self-deliverance so that the people in the congregation that needed help today that we couldn't see for a year, they could find help today through the process of learning how to exercise the Holy Spirit within them, with the Word of God to get breakthrough through the darkness so that they could come into freedom for themselves. And so how that's how this whole concept evolved. It was really to address a need that I saw within my congregation.
Sid Roth: There's people watching us right now and what is this demon business? That's not for today. We don't have demons today. What would you say?
Rabbi Schneider: You know what, that's a great question and I think that we do live in such a sophisticated time that as you said, Sid, the term seems archaic. I like to try to speak to people on these terms. Most of us will recognize that there is such a thing as evil in the world. In other words, we can point to specific acts where, for example, a child was abused sadistically, and no one would argue that that's evil. So the next question is, well where did that evil come from, so that then people are moving from the fact that they see evil in the world, now they're moving into the phenomenon, okay, I see that there are such a thing as general evil. But when we speak about a demon we're taking it one step further. We're going beyond general evil to personal evil, that evil has intelligence and it has an agenda to destroy.
Sid Roth: What about a born-again Bible believer that says, wait a second, you're going a little too far. I can't have a demon. What would you say?
Rabbi Schneider: Well you know, the scriptures say to us, Paul said, "Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities of darkness". So of course, he was speaking to believers when he said, "Our fight is not against flesh and blood". And Peter said, "Your adversary", speaking to believers, "the devil is roaming around like a lion looking for someone to devour". So the New Testament is very clear that everybody is struggling against darkness.
Sid Roth: When we come back, I want you to share about how God set Rabbi Schneider free supernaturally from a dream. Yes, a dream. We'll be right back.
Sid Roth: 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 Roth: 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 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 Roth: 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 Roth: Yeah.
Rabbi Schneider: And things for example, like unforgiveness. I learned about this again for 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 Roth: 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 Roth: You teach that we should refuse to be intimated 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 Roth: 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.
Sid Roth: All right, Rabbi Schneider, you told me it is very important for us to understand the distinction between authority and power. Explain that.
Rabbi Schneider: Well Jesus, "All authority", Jesus said, "on Heaven and Earth has been given to me". And we were saying before the break, Sid, that we have to know that we have authority in Jesus. Demons will not respond if we're not standing a position of knowing the authority that Jesus has and knowing that in him we can use that authority. But there is a difference between authority and power. I like to explain it this way. A police officer has authority because of the office that he stands in, and of course, if someone gets pulled over by a car, a police officer gets out of the car, he or she is wearing the badge, often times they'll have a hat and a uniform which represents their authority. And most people that are pulled over will cooperate with the police officer just because the police officer has authority. But sometimes people won't cooperate and when people won't cooperate with the police officer because of the authority, the police officer then has to back up his or her authority with power, whether it be a phasor, billy club or whatever that is. And the same is true in dealing with demons. Sometimes demons will just respond to authority. However, some demons will not respond to the authority unless the authority is backed up by power. Authority is given to us automatically when we receive Jesus. But power has to be developed. Remember for example, they came to Jesus and they said, concerning the one that demon had not been driven out of, they said, "Why couldn't your disciples not drive the demon out"? And Jesus said, "This kind doesn't come out but by fasting and prayer", which of course are two means of developing power. So to be effective we want to exercise both the authority that we have, but also develop power, and power comes simply by relying on God, depending on him, walking with him, prayer and all the other disciplines of the faith.
Sid Roth: Okay. So people have open doors. How do we close the doors and get rid of these demons?
Rabbi Schneider: Well that's a great question, and I personally believe that closing the doors often times can be a process. I find in my own life the deeper I get in my walk with Jesus, with Yeshua, the more in my heart I realize I need to repent of. In other words, often time the Lord will start off showing us surface things. But then the deeper we go we see perhaps elements of unforgiveness or pride, or spirit of accusation. And so closing the door involves, number one, repenting of sin continually as the Lord shows us in deeper ways sin within our hearts, areas that we might not know today, but in a year from now, because we've grown in grace, we'll see them.
Sid Roth: But you know, in the world Christianity is saying because of a wonderful concept called grace we can go on our merry way, we don't have to worry about those little sins.
Rabbi Schneider: Yeah. Any truth carried to the extreme becomes a heresy, doesn't it. Absolutely, we know the first thing that Jesus said was, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God".
Sid Roth: I don't hear that word much. I don't go to congregations and the pastor gets up and says, "repent". You know why? All the people get up and go out, and he wants them to get up and come in. But you know something? Without repentance you won't even see God.
Rabbi Schneider: Absolutely. And that's one of the ways that we close the doors and keep demons from getting in. When we repent we close the door, we close out the darkness from our lives.
Sid Roth: When you talk to in the spirit world to a demon, how do you do that?
Sid Roth: You just speak, you don't speak to them in terms of having a conversation, you speak at them.
Sid Roth: At them.
Rabbi Schneider: You speak at them. Absolutely. You're not looking to converse. I say, "Satan, I reject you. Get out of my head". It's just that simple. It gives the direct command to a demon the demon has to obey.
Sid Roth: But what happens if sense it didn't happen immediately? Do you throw in the towel? Do you give up?
Rabbi Schneider: Absolutely not. And that was part of the dream I shared a little earlier. When I grabbed a hold of that demon that was occupying my space, my house, I took a hold of him and I began to punch that demon in the face, and at first. It seemed like nothing was happening. It seemed like I had no power. It seemed like all my energy was not having any effect on him. But you know what, I was so committed to getting free, I wasn't going to stop. And as I persisted and as I kept going, bam, that demon broke. And it's the same thing with deliverance. We have to be committed to being free and know that we will get free because Jesus said, "If the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed".
Sid Roth: You personally battled with something that many of you are battling with right now, a spirit of fear. You think it's yourself. No, no, no, no, no. It is a spirit of fear. I talked to someone recently, they told me they were afraid to speak in public. You know what I found, Rabbi Schneider?
Rabbi Schneider: What's that?
Sid Roth: Whatever your strength is, it always, you know like attacked in that area, the person would do wonderful sharing in public. But they wouldn't even try because they were fearful of it. What would you say?
Rabbi Schneider: Well I would say that, number one, knowing the Word of God, knowing truth and using that truth as a weapon out of our mouth to speak is a key to getting free. The Word of God breaks the power of demons. Jesus, of course we know, defeated the devil in the wilderness and that before by speaking the Word of God. When we know that speaking the Word of God has life in it and we speak it at the demon, at the darkness, the darkness will break, the darkness will bend. It will lose its hold, and more and more we're going to enter into freedom and into the light. I think it's important that people recognize that this isn't always just a one-time quick fix. This is a commitment to being free, knowing you will get free. The principles work. The principles that I keep, Sid, they work.
Sid Roth: Tell me how it worked with you, with fear.
Rabbi Schneider: Well how it worked with fear with me is a number of different avenues. Number one, the truth. God began to reveal to me, number one, that the commitment to getting free wasn't just about my desire to be free, it was about his glory. And then I began to use the Word of God against the devil in the specific areas that Satan was causing fear. In other words, if Satan was causing fear in the area of health I would use the Word of God against Satan in the area of my health. If Satan is using fear in the area of finances, then we use what the Word of God says about finances against Satan in that area. So wherever...
Sid Roth: Now when you say use it, what exactly would you do?
Rabbi Schneider: I would quote it, I would, you know, David said he encouraged himself in the Lord. I would speak it to myself, quote it loud. I would say, "Satan, I reject you, get out of my head". Then I would replace his lie with the truth, speaking, this is what God's Word says to myself to encourage my own heart. So I would cast him out and I would affirm myself in the truth.
Sid Roth: I would like you to pray right now for the people all over the world watching right now that are looking for help. Pray for them.
Rabbi Schneider: Amen. Father, God, right now in Jesus' name, I just want to thank you how much you love your children. Father, your word says, behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God and thus we are. And you said, Father, greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world, and that this is the victory that's overcome the world our faith. Father, we want to thank you right now that in Jesus we already have the victory. Now Father, I speak a word of activation over your people right now that they would realize at a deeper level than ever before that your spirit lives within them, that life is on the inside and that the life that's in them is greater than the power of darkness that's outside of them, and that Father, you would activate them out of passivity into activation to use their faith by your spirit with the Word of God, in Jesus name. Satan, I break you off of God's children's life in Jesus' name with the knife of God's work. I command you to release them right, let them go and in Jesus' name, I say to you beloved child of God, in Jesus you are free.
Sid Roth: Would you say that all believers have to get rid of garbage in their life that was picked up before they were believers or picked up from ancestry, or just a few?
Rabbi Schneider: I think everybody. I think all of us are progressively journeying deeper into freedom and into God's light. So I think this is for everybody. I think everybody has battles that they need to overcome. You know, Paul said at the very end of his life, "I fought the fight. I've run the race and now there's laid out for me the crown of righteousness". We all need to be fighting because nobody is yet perfectly free and all of us demand to enter greater freedom and greater peace.
Sid Roth: And I speak freedom to you right now. He has a name, Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah. You shall know the truth and the truth, it will set you free.