Doris M. Wagner - How to Cast Out Demons: A Guide to the Basics

2000 by Doris M. Wagner

Published by Chosen Books
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
chosenbooks.com

Chosen Books is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

Chosen edition published 2014

ISBN 978-1-4412-6903-4

Previously published by Regal Books

Originally published by Wagner Institute for Practical Ministry in 1999.

Ebook edition originally created 2013

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Other versions used are:

NIVScripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

TLBScripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. All rights reserved.

Cover Design by Kevin Keller
Interior Design by Rob Williams

How in the world did a little old grandma ever get involved in such yucky stuff? My story so strongly resembles most of the others I have heard or read about that it makes me smile. I never went looking for a deliverance ministryit found me.

I stand amazed at what God has done in my life to prepare me for this ministry that began almost 20 years ago. I was already a mature person, my missionary service behind me, and I was now in a position to help train younger missionaries to do a better job than I did. I considered myself a young, enthusiastic worker who went to the mission field with a handicap: inadequate training for the job that awaited me.

My husband, Peter, and I were all heart, but we had been poorly prepared for overseas service. Excellent theologians, Bible teachers, Christian educators, preachers and personal evangelists had taught us, but not missionaries. We knew next to nothing about the cross-cultural communication of the gospel, because the field of missiology had not yet been developed in the early 1950s. Courses in anthropology, language and cultural learning, as well as specialized teaching in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, animism and folk religions were not available in our schools. The cessationist theology of our training left no room for praying for the sick or casting out demons, and it was the only theology that we knew.

We did all sorts of missionary work in Bolivia during the ensuing 16 years, but we mainly worked in evangelism, theological education and mission administration. Shortly after we had moved out of the small town of San Jos to Bolivias second largest city of Cochabamba, Peter became the general director of the Andes Evangelical Mission and I became the office manager of the same mission.

Peter had been either a student or a teacher most of his life, so during the times when he was not teaching he became a student and continued working on degrees. One of the study times that turned our world upside down and changed the course of our lives was when Peter was studying a Master of Arts in Missiology from his alma mater, Fuller Theological Seminary. Peter had been reading Donald McGavrans writings to investigate the field of missiology more closely; and it was during this study time, from 1967 to 1968, that things finally fell into place and the term power encounter became part of our vocabulary.

We were beginning to tap into a whole new realm of possibility for missionary work!

Peter and I have always had the somewhat dubious reputation of being about 10 years ahead of the pack as far as a comfort zone is concerned. If we feel its Gods will, new ground is never a threat to us. It has worried our colleagues at times, and it has made our evangelical crowd embarrassed about us now and then. But we just had to know more about this power stuff.

Anthropologist Alan Tippett, a missionary from Australia to Fiji, was the first to teach this new concept to us. In simple terms, a power encounter is a situation created by presenting the gospel to some unreached people group that precipitates a showdown of sorts as to who is the more powerful: the pagan god of the group or Jehovah God and His Son, Jesus Christ. When Jehovah God won the encounterand that is what the class taught the students how to presenta people movement would often occur. This meant that people would become Christians in groups, often burning fetishes or making other public statements of their faith in Christ. It was new teaching and we liked it! However, it put the missionaries on the spot because they then had to know how to handle this power.

We were game to learn. We wanted to become more effective in winning the lost in larger numbers, but it smacked a little of the Pentecostal/charismatic territory with which we were unfamiliar. We knew it was right and that we believed it, but implementing and teaching it were still a few steps away.

Peter was invited to remain at the Fuller Seminary School of World Mission as a professor when his degree was complete, but we were not ready to leave Bolivia yet. So we returned for another three years to get things on solid footing there and moved back to California in 1971 to start life all over again. Peter had arranged with the administration that if he were hired, we came as a pair and I would be his secretary. This was considered by some a little odd; and there was actually a rule, somewhere on the books, which stated that husband and wife could not work together, but Peter was insistentI was part of the package. They gave in and we have worked together ever since. He became associate professor of Church Growth and Latin American Studies. I served as his secretary, worked with the publicity committee and was the oversight of all technical aspects of dissertations and theses.

Church growth was our specialty, both here and abroad. Our personalized California license plates were MT 28 19 and MT 28 20the Great Commission. We got to know many pastors of growing churches, first as students and then as examples for Peters other students as they studied their churches and wrote papers on church-growth principles they had learned in class.

One of these bright students, John Wimber, appeared one day to take a class. He was your typical Quaker pastor, except that he was a rather recent convert who had come out of the music business. His skills were music and management before his conversion. He soon became a personal evangelist like few we have known. His church grew dramatically and he wanted to help other churches grow. We became good friends with John and Carol. Eventually Peter asked John to help him teach church growth, so he resigned from his church and came to work for us. The way opened up for him to consult with churches and denominations as well. But with his tremendous gift of evangelism, he soon grew disquieted in his spirit and asked if he could start a church on the sidesort of moonlighting. And that is how the Vineyard Christian Fellowship got its humble beginning. John had to leave us to devote his full time to the Vineyard, but we remained good friends and we often visited the Vineyard on Sunday evenings. Its where the action was in the Los Angeles area at the time!