Sid Roth welcomes Mark Virkler

SID: Hello. Sid Roth here with Mark Virkler. And we’re going to talk about an area that a lot of people confine to the back rooms. But one-third of the ministry, almost one-third of the ministry that Jesus had was casting evil spirits out of people. There was a freedom that the primitive early church had that is lacking so much today. Now Mark, tell me what your first experience was with deliverance.

MARK: My first experience was with a deacon in our church. He came and he said he had an uncontrollable sin issue. He has fasted, he had prayed, he memorized scripture. Nothing worked. And it was lust, and he would instantly undress every woman who came into the church. He hated himself for it and he could not overcome it. And so he said, “Do you think this could be a demon? And I said, “I don’t know.” ‘Cause I had never cast a demon out of anybody. But I said, “If you want us to pray for you we can.” And so we did. The three elders of the church got together. We prayed for him and within about a half hour to an hour, two or three demons surfaced and we cast them out. I mean, the guy was shaking and there was gruff voice and it said, “I’m not coming out.” And we said, “Yes, you’re coming out.” And we used the name of Jesus. We cast it out. There was sweat pouring off of him. He was shaking. They came out. And I thought, wow, that’s a new experience, because I didn’t even know deacons could have demons. And so I went back to him a week later, six weeks later, a month later, six months later, a year later, two years later, and I asked him the same question: “Is your life different?” And he said yes. He said, “Now it’s like any other sin. I can crucify it when I chose to and I chose to crucify it.” So his compulsion, which was caused by a demon, was broken and he was set free of it through delivered prayer.

SID: Okay. You then went through deliverance. You had a great fear of having a stroke. Yeah I did. My grandfather died when I was maybe seven or eight, somewhere around there, and my recollection was it was of a stroke. And that wasn’t quite accurately, but that was the way I saw it as a child. And so I picked up a fear of having a stroke, which I didn’t even know what it was. But I had reoccurring dreams about five days a week for about 15 years. And the dream was I would wake up paralyzed, my head was bloated, my arms were bloated, my tongue was bloated. I would shake the whole thing off and I’d be fine. And I didn’t know that that’s not the way you’re supposed to wake up. And so when our church got into deliverance I asked the elders to come pray for me, and as they prayed for a demon came out, what manifested was that sensation. My wife was sitting there in the living room. She said it looked like my tongue was bloated. And I felt like it as bloated. And I shook this whole thing off, it came out with tears, and I’ve never had that dream since then. That was 15-year-old reoccurring dream that I’ve never had the last 30 years of my life.

SID: What about that fear of stroke?
MARK: Fear of stroke left too, because in high school I remember going to the nurse’s office saying I got chest pains ‘cause I didn’t know that a stroke was in your head, not your chest. She threw me out and said, “No you don’t.” And I’m sure that demon would have tried to convince me that I was going to die of a stroke. And I have zero fear of a stroke at this point, absolutely zero.

SID: Okay. So you cast out many demons. But one time you bumped into a demon that you could not cast out. Tell me about it.

MARK: Well yeah, exactly. We had cast out thousands of demons from hundreds of people, and sometimes they come out easy, sometimes they come out hard, and this one gentleman, it as difficult. We spent an hour shouting at him saying, “In the name of Jesus, this demon come out!” And the demon would manifest, the person would shake and vibrate, a gruff voice would say, “I’m not coming out.” And we’d say, “You are coming out. In the name of Jesus, every knee must bow, every tongue must confess. You’re coming out.” And the demon would not come out. And two or three of us spent an hour commanding it to come out. And I said, “God, I am so frustrated.” Theologically this makes no sense because the Bible is crystal clear that every knee must bow in the name of Jesus and this demon did not bow. I have no idea why it didn’t bow. I have no idea why it didn’t come out. And because I am so theologically confused I’m just gonna set this area aside because I lost. There is obviously stuff about the heart, which I do not understand, and I cannot make this work.

SID: So for ten years he would have nothing to do with deliverance until he went to a conference in Australia and all of a sudden he was getting some very usual thoughts.

MARK: Well my life had been getting more mucked up, as I would call it. I picked up some anger and fear, and fear of rejection.

SID: I didn’t know pastors did that. [laugh]

MARK: [laugh] I didn’t either. I thought once I was ordained I’d have no more sin issues. But, you know, I got fired from some jobs and some people wounded me, and so I had wounds in my heart. And some demons said, “We can help you with those wounds.” So they’d magnify them. And here I am starting a 21-day speaking tour in Australia and I’m feeling fear of rejection, rejection, anger, and I’m saying, “God, you know, I’m in no shape to minister.” So I asked a surgeon and his wife, who I had heard did prayer ministry, if she would pray for me. And he said he’d check. And so the next day the two of them got together and they spent three hours praying for me. And in those three hours she was amazing. They got about 20 demons out of me, which really made me feel better. And I was amazed that I had 20 demons and if she could get them out in three hours–

SID: Here’s the bottom line. How was your life different after that?

MARK: Well the fear of rejection, the fear, the rejection, the anger, the hatred, the rage, all of that gone. Because what would use to happen if I would get into a threatening situation I would feel something rise up within me and grip me, and push me to a feared corner. And I was controlled by fear. And I’m convinced now that when something rises up in a person and grips them, and pushes them in a negative direction, that thing is a demon. And I have none of that kind of stuff within me any more. There’s nothing that rises up within me, grips me and pushes me. I’m free.

SID: But when she prayed for you, she showed you seven very supernatural prayers and you’ve been praying this over people ever since. What type of results have you gotten?

MARK: We have gotten tremendous results. As I looked at those seven prayers, which I realize she was detaching the anchors the demons hung on to, and that’s why the demons came out so easily.

SID: And the reason they stayed that one time you failed was because they actually are like attorneys. They have legal rights to stay.

MARK: Yeah. And so she would remove all the legal rights through these first six prayers, and the seventh prayer was to cast the demon out. And at that point it would come out easily without any pressure because it’s no longer attached to something within the individual.

SID: And just out of curiosity, when you would pray for normal deliverance, it would be hours and they would yell and scream, and fight. Do you see much of that now?

MARK: No, no. See that’s over with now because now deliverance is usually maybe two or three minutes.

SID: I like that. Don’t go away. We’ll tell you some of these seven supernatural prayers. Be right back.