David Berg
—Sphinx-Ashraf Defeated!DO 1408Feb. '83
—By the Laying on of Hands in Exorcism!
1. YOU KNOW, THE NIGHT AFTER WE HAD THE "GOD KNOWS WHEN" REVELATION—the next morning I woke up with a bad cough. (Maria: And you were all discouraged.) Yes. It's almost like sometimes, almost like I'm strangling in my throat, like an attack in the throat! Sometimes it will attack down there in the esophagus near my stomach when I'm eating, or sometimes in my throat when I'm breathing. Now get the significance of that?
2. IT'S A STRANGULATION IN EITHER THE TRACHEA OR THE ESOPHAGUS! (Maria: A binding‚ in other words?) Yes, a binding‚ tightening to try to keep me from either breathing or eating, two essential things you have to do! How about that? Well anyhow, the next morning afterwards, when I was sort of discouraged about the cough, I was praying about it & was here alone working—you weren't here‚ you were conferring with the staff, or I would have had you pray with me. But I just suddenly felt like saying, "Well Lord, now that You've shown me why, that if it's a type of prophetic warning of something that's happening or is going to happen, & now that I've gotten the message which I had explained the night before‚ couldn't I be relieved of this now?"—Not only the cough but all the rest, too. In other words it was a type of illustration that the Devil will try to strangle off the Word as well, the nourishment of the Family, the life-giving breath of the Family, that his doing this to me or allowing it to happen to me, is a type of that.
3. I WAS THINKING HOW, NOW THAT I KNEW WHAT GOD WANTED & had obeyed all these other things about getting out this series of Letters on it, & now that I knew what to do & what to call it as well‚ as Sphinx & Ashraf, etc.‚ I was planning on going down to dinner that night & have you all lay hands on me & do it specifically then. But I had such a pain in my belly right then it was like she knew what was going to happen & she was resisting it, like she was going to do all the dirty work she could before I could get her to leave! So I decided, "Well‚ I can't wait!" I just got such a sudden pain in my stomach I couldn't wait! I thought, "Well why should I have to endure this even until Maria gets back to the room, or much less until the Family is together tonight at dinner!"
4. I SAID "WELL, LORD, NOW COULDN'T I GET RID OF IT, NOW THAT YOU'VE TOLD ME?" And I was just sitting here praying, thinking about it, & I just decided, well, I think that's enough! I just seemed to suddenly have the faith for it‚ that the job was done, I had what I was supposed to know, & now I'd be able to get rid of it! Oh, it was after reading the Sphinx thing, "The Talisman"! I thought, "OK, Lord, I've got the message now, I've got the connection!" I realise that this has been going on now long enough, four years, when I went back & checked the chronology of it, that I started having these attacks immediately after that Talisman incident‚ & immediately after which Tim left, I started having these attacks then, & that's when I got that Sphinx & sphincter revelation about The Talisman, clear back then, & now what it was for! I don't know why I should have had to suffer all this time, four years‚ except that I got the message then & we didn't go to work on giving it out until just now! Although not long ago the Lord reminded me of that, when I prayed about why have I had this thing so long?—"Well you haven't gotten out the Talisman!"
5. NOW THAT'S A TERRIBLE THING WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, THAT I SHOULD HAVE TO BE AFFLICTED & SUFFER FROM SOMETHING SO LONG BECAUSE I DIDN'T DELIVER THE MESSAGE! I said, "All right, Lord, I've got the point, I know what You mean & I know what it's about, I got the revelation, I got the interpretation & I've done the Talisman! I have done everything I can do, now the rest is up to You!" And the Lord at that moment seemed to give me the faith, & I laid my hands on my stomach just like this, one hand on top of the other right on the spot where it happens, & I rebuked Sphinx / Ashraf in Jesus' name!
6. I NAMED THE EVIL SPIRIT, & THAT'S VERY IMPORTANT! There's something in a name, that's why we call on the Name of Jesus & why we rebuke Oplexicon, the Lord gave us a name! Many of the Faith healers have said it's important when you're exorcising spirits & demons to be able to name the spirit by name‚ expose them, in other words, by name! If you name them‚ they have to obey! So I laid my hands on my stomach & I said, "Now I rebuke you, Sphinx, in Jesus' name! Get out of my body & get out of this house!" I didn't want her to go into any of our neighbours either, so I said, "Go out there somewhere in that lot up the street!" I exiled her as far away as I could think of at the moment. I thought, now what kind of thing could I ask it to go into, I don't want it going into some nice animal or any person, so I said,
7. "GO INTO ONE OF THOSE HELLISH LIZARDS out there or one of those serpents or one of those Devil's monsters they've got out there!" And right away I felt better! I was specific, I named the demon & I commanded her in the Name of Jesus to go, & get out of me, out of the house, out of this property, & go out there somewhere in the lot in one of those demonic-looking Devil's pests! I said‚ "Some lizard or some serpent out there"—I told it to stay away from here.
8. I TOLD HER TO LEAVE BY NAME, THE NAME SPHINX, IN THE NAME OF JESUS, & BELIEVE OR NOT I'VE FELT BETTER! My food has seemed to have gone down a little better, or much better: The last two solid meals I've eaten since then, yesterday's lunch & last night's dinner! I just took a definite stand like my Mother used to say, a "stand of faith," be specific! And I've heard them say‚ name the devil by name! Jesus did it, the Apostles did it sometimes. Before He even cast out the demons that were in that one man, He said "What is thy name?" And they said, "Our name is Legion, for we are many!" (Maria: Yes!)
9. ISN'T THAT SOMETHING, THAT IT EITHER TRIED TO CHOKE ME IN THE THROAT OR CHOKE ME IN THE FOOD TUBE! (Maria: Right!)—And it all started right after that thing about the Sphinx & the Talisman & Tim's defection! But I felt like now, "Well, that's that, I've done my part, I've done 'The Talisman,' I got the revelation WHY. So Lord‚ now it's time for it to go!" So I rebuked the SPHINX in JESUS' NAME & told her to get out of here & go out there & inhabit some snake or varmint or lizard out there in the lot, & I immediately felt a certain relief!
10. SO I BELIEVE I'M GOING TO DO BETTER! (Maria: Amen, I believe it too!) Thank You Lord! And you noticed I didn't have hardly any coughing last night? We've won a Victory! TYJ! HAL!