Jamin Bradley

As an exorcist, I have had to deal with many kinds of demons, each one with a different strength, weakness, and personality. When I started this ministry, I’d try to force them out, but it rarely worked. It wasn’t my Christian authority that was in question—indeed, I had forced one of them to admit that my authority was higher than theirs. “You’re beginning to question that, are you?” they said. “No, I just want you to admit it with your own words so you remember,” I replied. It glared and did so angrily.

But despite my authority, I still couldn’t get them out. God let me flail around like this for a bit until one day they stopped showing up when I commanded them to come forward. I sought the Holy Spirit for help and felt a response: “Force clearly isn’t working here, Jamin. You need to come to me for answers, not them.” The Spirit then told me what I needed to know, and we finally got it out the right way.

Here’s what I’ve found about demons and the spiritual realm: God doesn’t care to give us the fine details of what’s going on. In deliverance ministry, the Holy Spirit usually only tells me what I need to know. This is wise as I think I might get obsessive or overly fascinated if he told me much more. But according to what we are allowed to know in the Bible, there seem to be at least three types of demons:

1. We gather that some demons are fallen angels who joined Satan in his rebellion.
2. All of the false gods that rule over various territories are called demons (they’re false in the sense that they’re not to be worshipped, not false in the sense that they’re not real beings).
3. The giants are thought to have become demons after they died.

If you’re unfamiliar with the story of the giants, Genesis 6 tells us that angels and humans procreated before the flood and gave birth to them. Because these beings were not a part of God’s plan, they did not belong in Heaven or on Earth. Therefore, when they died, their spirits were thought to become demons: spirits that lived in the underworld of the dead where Satan had been banished. Jesus often called demons “unclean spirits,” perhaps because their origin story was that of an unclean relationship between spiritual and physical beings. Even while alive, the giants appeared somewhat demonic, for one of the giant clans was identified with a valley that geographically connected with the Valley of Hinnom. In Old Testament Hebrew, this valley is called ge hinnom, but in New Testament Greek, it’s called gehenna—or as we translate it in English: Hell.

Have I ever cast out an unclean spirit that used to be a giant? I have no idea. If God ever wants me to have that answer, I suppose the Holy Spirit will give it to me. In the meantime, I just try to be faithful to what he tells me to do, knowing he will tell me all I need to know.