I have here a very clear glove.  A glove cannot do anything.  It cannot write.  It cannot cut bread.  It cannot do anything.  But now it can even play piano…I know that it’s not the glove that can play piano, but the hand in the glove.  And we cannot do anything.  Without Jesus we can do nothing.  But with Him we can do everything.  Now you see that when my hand is only in the midst of this glove, the glove cannot do anything.  And I believe that’s why the Bible says, one of the best and the most sweetest commandments of the Bible, “Be filled with the Spirit”.  And don’t forget that the Bible has no suggestions, but commandments. 

We cannot do anything.  Without Jesus we can do nothing.  But with Him we can do everything.

And first I will read for you first Ephesians 6:10-20, in the translation of Phillips:  “In conclusion be strong – not in yourselves but in the Lord, in the power of His boundless resource.  Put on God’s complete armor so that you can successfully resist all the devil’s methods of attack.  For our fight is not against any physical enemy:  it is against organizations and powers that are spiritual.”  I read somewhere, this time it’s unparalleled in demon population on this planet.  “We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil.  Therefore, you must wear the whole armor of God, that you may be able to resist evil in its day of power and that even when you have fought to a standstill you may still stand your ground.  Take your stand then with truth as your belt (‘Who is our truth?… Jesus’), righteousness your breastplate (‘Jesus is our righteousness’), the gospel of peace firmly on your feet (‘Jesus is our peace’), salvation as our helmet (‘Jesus is our salvation…He in us, we in Him’), and in your hand the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.  Above all be sure you take faith as your shield, for it can quench every burden missile the enemy hurls at you.  Pray at all times with every kind of spiritual prayer, keeping alert and persistent as you pray for all Christ’s men and women.  And pray for me, too, that I may be able to speak freely here to make known the secret of that Gospel for which I am, so to speak, an ambassador in chains.  Pray that I may speak out about it as is my plain and obvious duty.”

We have a tremendous task in this world.  And it is good that we realize that we are standing in the midst of a terrific battle.  Some time ago, I had a talk for men in Germany.  We had a good hour.  We listened together to what the Holy Spirit had to tell us.  Now I know that half of these men were Baptist and half were Lutheran.  After, when I was through, we had some conversation, and one of them asked me, “Tell me, uh what is, uh, what do you think about the right way of baptism?”  I thought, ‘I don’t know where that question comes from.  I fear that it comes from the corner of the enemy.’  You know, I knew that when I would say one thing, that half of the people should throw away my whole talk because I did not agree about their doctrine of baptism.  Should I say the other thing, then the other half was against me. 

So, I prayed for wisdom, and I’m so glad for a check written in my name and signed by Jesus Christ.  In James 1:5 he wrote a check that I always should cash it in, “If, in the process, any of you does not know how to meet any particular problem he has only to ask God – who gives generously to all men without making them feel foolish or guilty – and he may be quite sure that the necessary wisdom will be given him.”  Isn’t that good?  Boy.  “But he must ask in sincere faith without secret doubts as to whether he really wants God’s help or not.”  I never know who has a sense of humor.  If this Phillips, or James or the Holy Spirit.  I think all three.  I’m sure all three have it.  “The man who trusts God, but with inward reservation, is like a wave of the sea, carried forward by the wind one moment and driven back to the next.  I say ‘Father, you have said.’  He  has given me now.  I know that God likes it when we pray with boldness and say ‘Father, you have said’.  God has meant business with His promises and He likes it when we mean business with His promises.  The Lord gave me wisdom. 

I said ‘Well, will you open your Bible at Mark 16, verse 15 where the Lord Jesus said, “You must go out to the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.  He who believes it and is baptized will be saved, but he who disbelieves it will be condemned.  These signs will follow those who do believe:  they will drive out evil spirits in my name; they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up snakes, and if they drink anything poisonous it will do them no harm; they will lay their hands upon the sick and they will recover.  After these words to them, the Lord Jesus was taken up into Heaven and was enthroned at the right hand of God.  They went out and preached everywhere.  The Lord worked with them, confirming their message by the signs that followed.” 

Now, three things here that the Lord tells us and the first is go to bring the gospel, then baptize, and then the power over demons and sicknesses. I said, “May I ask you, how far are you with the first of the three?  Did you do your utmost to bring the gospel over the world with your prayer, your purse, your testimony?  Are you not yet ready with that?  What about this third thing?  Did you cast out demons, did you lay your hands on the sick?  Did you do all these three things, are you not yet ready with that or is there still something left?  Now will you first do one and three and do everything you can for to bring the gospel over the world and then to lay hands on the sick and cast out demons, and if you are through with these then come to me and I will tell you what I think about number two.”  And yet I can only tell you one thing about that system and that is that Jesus has not given us this great privilege and blessing to quarrel about, but to enjoy it.  Now, they smiled and the both halves were still with me.

Now, in this time it is very important that we understand that there is a terrific fight against the very representatives of the headquarters of evil, and you and I are standing in the front line, and you and I are the only people in the world who can cast out demons in the name of Jesus.  Do you realize that?  Communists can’t do that.  Beelzebub is not willing to do it, so you and I must do it. 

Now, in this time it is very important that we understand that there is a terrific fight against the very representatives of the headquarters of evil, and you and I are standing in the front line, and you and I are the only people in the world who can cast out demons in the name of Jesus.

I have written a little booklet, “Defeated Enemies”, where I tell about what I have experienced of a follower of demons.  This is not demonology, this is not theory, it’s just what I experienced when I went over the world and I had to speak and to preach and to, to lay hands on sick and to bring the gospel and go over the world as a tramp for the Lord.  And I didn’t realize at all that we have the task of casting out demons.  Oh yes, I had experienced it when I was in the concentration camp, where we were together in a terrible place where people had had training in cruelties, where the demon of hatred was in the hearts of many people, and Betsie and I were there together with 700 prisoners in a very small room.  And these poor prisoners were often so nervous and too afraid. We had to sleep on very small cots with two or three.  And sometimes it was as if there came a wave of hatred and darkness over that room, and the people started to fight and it was a very great danger in such a small place.  And I will never forget how my sister behaved. 

One day she heard that they were fighting together and one said “I kick you out of bed and I won’t help you any longer lay so against me,” and then Betsie said, “Let’s pray”.  And Betsie started to pray, and when she was praying it was as if a storm lay down and was all quiet and then she stopped.  We knew that there were demons around us, and we had never thought about casting out demons, but we read in the little forbidden booklet that we had, the Bible, we read that we may and must cast out demons and then there were demons who do not go without fasting.  And Betsie said, “What about when we just give our fast and that the enemy gets us, that we give that back to the Lord and say ‘Lord, it’s not our will, but we fast, but may You use it Lord.’ ”  I’m so glad that God never takes a theological examine from you before He helps you.  It’s just understood, and He did it, and we got power over demons.

I had spoken about we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ, and God’s promises are the greatest realities.  And our problems are the material for God to build His miracles.

And then after that period of my life that I was a prisoner there, then I had to go over the world, and in my book, “Amazing Love” you can read how for the first time I came face to face with demons.  I had spoken about we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ, and God’s promises are the greatest realities.  And our problems are the material for God to build His miracles.  And if we need a great miracle we must hand God our impossibilities. ‘Twas a very nice sermon. 

And the next day there came a woman to me with her daughter who was demon-possessed.  And she said, “Did you believe what you said yesterday?”  I said, “I told you, I believed every word.”  She said, “Alright, here is my daughter, she is possessed by a demon of fear.”  The moment that they heard a noise, even when someone opened the tap in the house, then that girl shrank down of fear, and hid her face on her mother’s lap.  It was a girl 15 years old.  She said, “Can you cast out the demon?”  I said, “No.  That’s not my work.”  “Oh yes,” she said, “I thought it.  You were very beautiful what you said in your talk, but you don’t believe it yourself.”  I said, “I believe it.”  And then I said, “Oh, Lord, I believe it, I believe it, but what must I do?  Lord, I must not cast out demons…that‘s not my work.  Or, is it Your will?”  And then the Lord said, “Yes.”  And I said to the mother, “Do you believe?” and she said, “Yes, I believe the Bible and I believe Mark 16.”  And then I spoke to that demon in that poor girl.  I asked that girl, “Do you love the Lord Jesus?”  She said, “Yes, but He must make me free.”  I said, “Yes, He will make you free.”  And I said to the demons, “In the name of Jesus, leave that girl.”  And the mother and the girl left, and that girl was just as demon-possessed as before, and I was disappointed and frustrated. 

I went in the house of the minister.  So I went to his study.  I said, “Pastor, I have experienced this.  I am so sorry.  I believe in the Bible.  I believe that the promises of the Lord are the greatest reality, but I think my faith was not strong enough.  Will you do it?  This dear breath of the girl?”  He said, “What do you mean?”  I said, “You must cast out this demon.”  He said, “I, I don’t think about it.  I never did that before.”  I said, “But, but Pastor, you must do it then.”  I said, “Pastor, open, open your Bible and read Mark 16.”  I said, “Read it aloud.”  And he read it.  And he read, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.  And these signs shall follow them that believe:  in My name shall they cast out the devil.”  And he said, “Oh, Lord, I have never known that.  Forgive me.  Forgive me, Lord.  This girl is not the only one in my church, in my congregation.  There are more, Lord, I have never seen that I have a duty here.” 

And I had joy in my heart.  I thought, “Now I know why I had to have that, that defeat.  I had to go to that minister.”  I understood a little bit of God’s side of the embroidery.   And that next day, the woman came with her daughter and she said, “The moment that I recrossed the threshold of our house, the demon was gone from my daughter.”  And she was absolutely free.  Why did God wait with liberating that girl?  Because I had to go to that minister to have that talk.  That was an encouraging beginning.  And don’t I strive to study the Bible in this.  I read in 1 John 5:18, “The true child of God…is in the charge of God’s own Son and the evil one must keep his distance.”  He still has a big thorn in his side, after all.  Napoleon said to this gentleman, “When they follow me, and when you are my soldiers, I must tell you that also when you are hungry there will be no food.  When there is bad weather, you will not have shelter.  What is awaiting you is blood and sweat.  But I can promise you one thing:  when you follow Napoleon, you fight for a general who never lost a battle.”  But he lost the last battle. 

When we are in the army of the King of Kings, we fight for a King who never lost a battle and who will never lose a battle, and every knee will bow before Him.  And at our side is a Mighty High Priest and legions of angels.  And we have a Book almost bursting by good news.  And we stand in the power of the blood of Jesus.

And when we are in the army of the King of Kings, we fight for a King who never lost a battle and who will never lose a battle, and every knee will bow before Him.  And at our side is a Mighty High Priest and legions of angels.  And we have a Book almost bursting by good news.  And we stand in the power of the blood of Jesus.  What this Book tells us that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony.  And we have the authority of Name of Jesus.  And like a traffic officer has authority over the law behind him, and if you don’t obey him you get a ticket, you and I have the authority of Jesus’ Name.  And if the devil does not obey you, then you give him a ticket.  He is a defeated enemy.  Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.  We have to extend the victorious side. 

I know that part of Mark, there is a question mark behind that last part of Mark 16.  In Germany there was a girl who was rather ill, and a brother came to her and said, “Do you believe in the Bible?”  She said, “I believe the Bible from cover to cover.”  “When we read Mark 16 that Jesus says ‘In My name thou shalt lay hands on the sick and they will recover,’ do you believe that?”  “Oh, yes,” she said, “I never heard that before, but I didn’t know that that was in the Bible, but I believe it because it is in the Bible.”  And he laid hands on her and she was healed.  And she was so happy.  She ran to her pastor.  She said “Pastor, did you know that, that it was in the Bible?  And brother so-and-so has done it, what you can read in Mark 16, that Jesus said ‘In My name you will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.’ “  And the pastor said, “My dear lady, I’m so sorry that I must tell you that Mark 16 is added to the Bible long, long after original was written.”  She was very disappointed.  But suddenly she said, “Oh my, what a book is the Bible that even an added promise has so much power that I am healed!” 

My friends, when we act on the words of God there happen miracles in us and God watches over His work to perform it.

My friends, when we act on the words of God there happen miracles in us and God watches over His work to perform it.  And I wrote once in my little paper, it’s hard this time, that someone said, was asked, “Do you believe that Jonah was in the stomach of the whale?”  And he said, “Yes, I believe that, and if the Bible has told that the whale had been in the stomach of Jonah I should also have believed it if it was in the Bible.”  Yes, it is good to act on the Word of God.  But, it is also very necessary that we obey the Word of God.  “Cast out demons in My Name,” said Jesus.

I’m so glad that in the armor of God is also prayer.  I believe it is in my book “Not Good If Detached,” but I tell that I was in a group of…a small conference in Germany, of what you call here in the front the Christian fellowship.  Ten students, Christians, had brought ten non-Christians.  And I had to speak Saturday evening and 3 times on Sunday.  On Saturday after I had spoken, every student took one of the non-Christians and made a walk and walked with them, and they said “Corrie, not one of them has accepted your message.  But we will pray.  We will pray this night and we will pray tomorrow and we will stand behind you with our prayers.” 

Now, God did miracles that Sunday, when people prayed and the devil had not much power to come in between.  And in the evening, 8 out of 10 had made a decision for the Lord Jesus, that made the angels in heaven rejoice.  I went to my bedroom very happy and thankful and exhausted.  Germans have very thoroughly thought much, and between the 3 meetings I had many, many talks, but I was so happy with what the Lord had done. 

But when I came in my room, Trudy followed me.  And Trudy said “Oh, Corrie, I must thank you, what you have done for my Otto.  He was so dark.”  He was a medical student, and her fiancé also was a medical student, and she said “Oh, he was so dark and unhappy, and now he has accepted the Lord Jesus and is so glad and so full of joy.”  I said, “Now let me just praise and thank the Lord.  But what about you, Trudy?”  She said, “I don’t come to speak about myself.  I will speak about Otto.”  I thought, “OK,” and I talked about Otto. 

But suddenly, in the midst of our talk, I turned to her, or rather to demons in her, and I said, “In the name of Jesus I command you demons go out of this girl.  She is not bought by your blood, but by the blood of Jesus Christ, who has paid everything for her at the cross of Golgotha.  I command you to leave her and I forbid you to come back or to come in anyone else.  Go to the place where Jesus tells you to go.”  I’ve never seen such a change on the face of a human being.  From the darkness she came into light and she shouted, “I’m free, I’m free, is there hope for me?  I didn’t know it!”  And then she told me that she had intended to commit suicide the next day.  And I could hardly, I stood trembling on my feet.  I did not know anything of her, and I even had not discerned that she was demon-possessed.  And I, after she had left, I thought “I must have a prayer, I must talk it over with someone.”

I’ve never seen such a change on the face of a human being.  From the darkness she came into light and she shouted, “I’m free, I’m free, is there hope for me?  I didn’t know it!”

 I ran downstairs and in the hall where we had our meeting I saw all these same students on their knees.  And I said “I’ve come to tell you that Trudy is liberated.”  They said, “We knew.”  I said, “What did you know?”  They said, “We knew that she was demon-possessed and when she went to your room we went in prayer.  And we prayed “God, use Corrie Ten Boom to liberate that girl.”  And after some time, suddenly our prayer went over in praise and thanks and we knew that she was free.” 

Now do you see what prayer means?  I did not know anything about that girl.  But, there were these students who were praying.  And I was very happy about this experience.  I have found over the whole world a lack of knowledge among theologians, among Bible students in the seminaries, in the Bible schools, the people do not teach to cast out demons.  And I must say here, that Pentecostal church is here much more advanced than the other churches.  But more so, now here comes a difference also in the other churches.  But, my friends, don’t forget that you have to cast out demons in this time.  And you can do it.  Not because of your faith, for that is very small, perhaps no bigger than a coconut, even perhaps not bigger than a mustard seed.  But that doesn’t matter.  It can remove mountains.  And you have the authority of the name of Jesus.  And you have the legal juice of the name of Jesus and you stand in the power of His blood.

Perhaps you will say that, “Listen, I can understand when you go over the mission field that you find many people that are demon-possessed, but you are here in America.”  Have you never had someone in your counseling room who said, “Oh, I wanted so much to accept the Lord Jesus, but I cannot.  I’m not able.  The moment that I will ask Lord Jesus, ‘come into my heart,’ it is as if there comes something between Him and me.”  And the people say that I always ask, I always ask with them.  When I counsel and even when I preach I have always the worry somewhere in the critical connection in the same moment, and I can tell my dear Lord quite difference sermons than I tell the people in front of me, then I ask, “Lord, what is wrong?  What is there in the life of this person who is wanting and longing to be saved, but she cannot?”  

When you are on the territory of the enemy you are in their power.  Now when you go for fun to a fortune teller, or you are asked to believe the lines in your hand…then I can tell you, you are in the territory of the enemy.  And you are in great danger.

And then the Lord tells me which question I ask. Then I say, “When did you go to spiritist meeting?”  Or I ask, “When did you go to a fortune teller?”  And I never ask, when they have been to a fortune teller, if they have come to a spiritualist meeting.  The Holy Spirit teach the discernment.  The answer is almost always the same.  “Oh, yes, it was then and done, but I did it just for fun.”  And then I tell them about East Germany.  In East Germany, the border between west and east is sometimes in the midst of the wood.  Now, when you are walking in that forest, in that wood, and you should not be alert, it is possible to come very easily into the eastern part of that wood in Germany.  And especially when you had a game and then you are playing, and suddenly you are on the wrong side of the border, and then the police come and catch, “Just come with me to the Police Station.”  Do you think it helps you when you say, “Oh, excuse me, but we were just playing?”  No.  When you are on the territory of the enemy you are in their power.  Now when you go for fun to a fortune teller, or you are asked to believe the lines in your hand… this nonsense, and that it’s very often here in America, then I can tell you, you are in the territory of the enemy.  And you are in great danger.

Now, the people don’t always believe that, so it is the best that we make the Bible speak.  And then I always immediately ask them to open their Bible to read Deuteronomy 18:10-13, “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.  For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD:  and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.  Though shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.” [KJV]  Why is it an abomination in the eyes of God?  Because instead of asking God for help they have asked the enemy for help.  That’s why you must be perfect with the LORD thy God.

Now if people really are serious they are very soon frustrated that they have been an abomination.  And that’s all right…when they are so far, then I open the Bible and give them Word, for instance, 1 John 1:7 and 9, “When we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all the sins we confess.”  That’s not a cleanse and excuse.  And then they are free, and they do it, and then they can accept the Lord. 

And, oh how we must warn these decent sinners here in America that they mustn’t go to fortune tellers.  And I found also, you will see that in my little booklet, that my people are in great danger because they do not know about these things.  ‘Twas a great evangelist in Germany, a man of God, mightily used for thousands and thousands of sinners who were saved and thousands and ten thousand Christians who came by his preaching into the victorious life. . . He came once to me and he said, “Oh, Corrie, I have had such a terrible experience.  There came a lady to me and she said, ‘Oh, make me free, make me free.  I am under the power of the devil.’ “  And he said, “I saw in her eyes that she was demon-possessed, and I laid my hands on her and the same moment I fell on my back and I was out of consciousness for half an hour.  And when I came back to consciousness she was gone and she had committed suicide.” 

I said, “Pastor, will you show me in the Bible where it is written that we must lay hands on the demon-possessed?”  Lay hands on the sick, and cast out the demons.  We must be very careful with our obedience.  Now here is a man who was beloved of the Lord, who was often burdened for souls, and only by lack of knowledge this man did such a dangerous thing.  It is time to wake up to a reality. 

Now in this booklet also, I tell that there is a danger.  I don’t know if you have ever read the book of Mrs. Penn-Lewis, “War on the Saints,” and you read that book without first asking the Lord to protect you with the blood of Jesus, you come in great darkness.  ‘Tis a positive book, but there’s a danger in it.  And is one-sided.  She, uh, there is everything under the category of demon possession.  And I found a mission recently, the mission field, who did the same.  And they always talk about demons, and about demon-possession.  Not only in the mission fields, so often when a mother-in-law is difficult, then they said “My mother-in-law is demon possessed!”  Be careful.  Jesus speaks about saying to someone “Raca!”  I don’t know anything.  I’ve never studied demonology, but in this little booklet I try to make the difference between demon obsession and demon-possession.  Demon-possession you can see.  But demon obsession you cannot always see.  There’s a gradual difference.  The answer is the same.  Cast out the demons in the name of Jesus.  And we overcome by the blood of the Lamb.  But be careful that you do not make advertisement for the enemies by always talking about them. 

I will never forget when Dr. Torrey Johnson came to Holland to start a Youth For Christ movement there.  I’ve never seen such mean articles in the newspaper when they wrote about Torrey Johnson.  Terrible things.  So mean, so dirty, and when he came there were no halls big enough to contain the mass of people.  And I can tell you when I should come back here to America and I should like to have very big meetings I should ask some of you, you be so kind to write against me.  And you cannot be too mean!  These people have made the best advertisement for Torrey Johnson, and now the Youth For Christ movement is in the hands of young people who were saved in the first meetings of Torrey Johnson. . . But don’t talk too much about demons. 

It is in “The Screwtape Letters” that this man with his mighty sense of humor says, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devil:  one is to disbelieve in their existence.”  And that’s very much many people do not believe that demons exist.  And devils and pastors, people who stand in the midst of the whole army of demons, and they do not believe.  You see that they exist.  What a terrific victory for the devil.  One is to disbelieve in their existence.  The other is to believe and to feel an unhealthy interest in them.  And I can tell you that what I tell you today I cannot give everywhere.  I can tell you when I have given this talk, then people come to me and thrust out the most thrilling book stories.  But it’s an unhealthy curiosity, and their life is tell about demons.  And then they go and they tell what has happened with that and that woman, what they have seen about, ah it’s hysterical. 

They themselves are equally pleased by both errors.  And they hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.  Demons exist. And demons are in the world.  And I believe there are more now than in every time before.  And you have a tremendous task.  And you have nothing to fear. 

Demons exist. And demons are in the world.  And I believe there are more now than in every time before.  And you have a tremendous task.  And you have nothing to fear.

But, be sure, that you do not give the devil a foothold.  What do I mean?  I was in South Africa, and I got a telephone from a girl, a lady who said, “Corrie, can you come here, here is a girl, demon-possessed and we don’t know what to do.”  Now, my first reaction is always to say “No.”  When you ask me to go to a sick and lay hands on the sick, then I say with great joy, “Oh yes, I do it.”  And it gives me a great joy to lay hands on the sick.  But when you ask me, “Come and cast out the demons” then I say, “Can’t he do it?”  What is it?  Am I afraid for demons?  The fear for demons comes from the demons themselves.  And we have nothing to fear from demons.  Nothing.  We stand there victorious beside legions of angels, and a mighty high Priest is at our side.  Is it because it is so terrible to see the demonstration of the power of the enemy in the life of a human being?  Perhaps it is that.  I don’t know what you have for experience, but after I have been used to cast out demons I am physically so tired.  And I have not that when I lay hands on the sick.  I don’t know what it is, but I don’t like it.  And if I can avoid it, I do it.

But I know that if I do not do it, and if you do not do it, who are in the world must cast out demons, tell me?  There’s no other in the whole world who can do it!  But a Christian.  The Spirit-filled Christians.  And you can’t do it and I can’t do it, we are nobody…..gloves.  You see how very important it is to be filled with Holy Spirit in this time? 

So, I said, “Yes, I come.”  And I took this woman after that and I said to my friend, “Say, listen, will you please come with your car and bring me back to that address?  There’s a woman demon-possessed, and they have asked me if I would come to cast out the demon.”  And my friend said, “Corrie, you know that I’m always available for you with my car, but today I cannot do it.  It is impossible.  The whole day I must bake pies and cakes and for the church meeting tomorrow.”  I laid down the receiver of that telephone and there were 3 ministers in that room where the telephone was, and I turned to the ministers and I said, “There are too many pies and too many demons in your churches.”

  What did I mean?  I don’t know.  And this was in South Africa, in all these British countries, these ladies’ meetings are just demonstrations of how they can bake pies and almost a danger.  After I had been some weeks there, they’re fattening Ms. Corrie ten Boom, and I must go on a diet.  But I have nothing against it.  I like them.  But there is a time that we must not bake pies, but cast out demons.  And if all the ladies used time that they use in their teaching just to go to that neighbor that has an eternity to lost or to gain, and bring the gospel, then I think that it should be good. Now there’s a time, perhaps, for baking pies, and I know in America it doesn’t take much time, for you have all in one can.  There are too many demons in our churches. What do you do with a demon-possessed or obsessed person?  Now, be honest!  You send him to a psychiatrist.  And he can give shock, and demons are not at all shocked.  There is a danger.  It’s time to wake up to a reality. 

One of the ministers said, “I will bring you to that lady.”  And I was there and there was absolute defeat.  I couldn’t do anything.  And at last, the demons attacked me.  A demon said, “You are possessed by the idiotic idea that Jesus is fixer.”  And I had to leave absolutely defeated.  And I went on my knees.  I said, “Lord, what is happened?”  And the Lord showed me there was in my being a foothold for the devil.  Don’t go to bed angry.  Don’t give the devil that kind of foothold.  That is somewhere in the translation of Phillips.  You know, when there is a foothold for the devil, you are in a strategic, very weak moment. 

What was the foothold?  My attitude was ‘holier than thou.’  I had told these ministers in a very witty and straight way what I thought about the demons and pies.  Do you see?  ‘Holier than thou’ is a smoke in God’s nose.  I die at this.  It’s a terrible thing.  It was pride.  Spiritual pride.  Don’t fight with demons when there is pride in your heart.  Don’t give the enemy that kind of foothold.

What was the foothold?  My attitude was ‘holier than thou.’  I had told these ministers in a very witty and straight way what I thought about the demons and pies.  Do you see?  ‘Holier than thou’ is a smoke in God’s nose.

Now, if you’ll know more about my experiences, read that little booklet, “Defeated Enemies.”  And I will not stop here.  But I will tell you that there are more angels in the world than demons.  And often we speak far more about demons than about angels.  And I’m so glad for the angels.  Boy, they are great friends of mine.  And how they have helped me, and they help me. 

In my book, “A Prisoner And Yet” you can read that I came in the prison and we all had to be searched.  And we stood on a line and everyone was searched and they took away everything that we have hidden.  And scared I was.  I had a little Bible.  It was special printed for the underground workers in Holland.  Had the whole Old and New Testament, was very small.  And I had it under my dress on my back.  And other things that I needed.  And I saw that they did not believe anything.  They took away everything that was hidden.  And I was so scared that I said, “Oh, God, send now your angels, and that they surround me.”  Again, I thought, “Yes, angels.”  But after all, angels are spirits.  And spirits are transparent, you can look through them, and these people may not see me.  I said, “God let your angels not be transparent today.”  

You can pray very unorthodox when you are in great need.  But God did it!  How I don’t know.  But the woman who was standing before me was searched.  And then my sister stood behind me and they did not see me.  And there was joy in my heart!  I said, “Oh God, if you are such a hearer of prayers I believe I can even stand a concentration camp.”  It was an hour later I was called again.  All of us.  And we had to stand in the street, and everywhere was searched for a second time by different women.  But I was not afraid.  I said, “Father, use your untransparent angels just some moments around me,” and He did.  And so I came with my Bible in that prison.  Strange story?  No.  It’s written in the Bible angels are ministering spirits sent to this planet for your and my help!  Oh my.  Sometimes, we must pray for open eyes.