Imagine: A 16-year old woman...kind, sweet, sensitive...is being pursued by a creepy 20-something-year-old. She has told him she wants no boyfriend. She is kind. Does not want to hurt his feelings. Says they can talk sometimes but he can't be following her around and calling/texting at all hours. He is getting worse. What is she to do? Answer: RENOUNCE HIM! She needs to definitively, decisively, fiercely, aggressively renounce him. Tell him: NEVER call or text or follow me again. NEVER! Block calls, delete number and email, de-friend, avoid, absolutely detach. If that does not do the job, she gets backup from Dad, big brother, tough uncle, or friendly cop.
That is the only way to handle a creepy stalker. Otherwise he will persist, wear you down, exhaust you and eventually work his magic. You need an absolute renunciation.
That is the only way to handle Lucifer. He must be renounced...definitively.
In baptism/confirmation we do a threefold Credo ("I believe...") and a threefold renunciation of Satan and all his works and empty promises. This is not a once-and-done thing. It is an everyday-of-your life thing. Today, for sure, Satan will come for you in some way. If you are tentative, wavering, or being-nice, he will persist and eventually prevail. You need to definitively renounce him and all his lies.
I realized this was an immensely important and missing piece of my spiritual life when I read and attended Unbound conferences of Neal Lozano and his deliverance team. Key steps are: repentance, forgiveness, renunciation, command and blessing. But the key one I needed was renunciation.
This is done "in the name of Jesus Christ." NOT in my personal power. It is done in the Holy Spirit. This is crucial. The demons flee before the name of Jesus. They are in fear of him. They are defeated already by him.
Specific demons must be named: "In the name of Jesus, I renounce you spirit of...jealousy, self-hatred, lust, anxiety, resentment, gluttony, perfectionism...."
This is as if your slothful, selfish guest crossed a red line and you tell him: "Our of here. Get out of my house. Right Now!" It is as if you terminate a relationship becoming abusive by "kicking him to the curb."
A priest in confession once exhorted me: "In this combat you cannot be passive. You must ferociously, passionately attack the devil!"
Jesus told us that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church. In this he implies: hell is gated in and defensive, the aggressor is the Church. We will, in Jesus and the Holy Spirit, prevail against the Dark Kingdom.
This cannot be overemphasized: By the graces of baptism and confirmation we are the aggressor! We are attacking the Dark Kingdom. Even from a distance: as I type this I am also quietly binding Satan in his hold over Putin, Russia and their military. If I hear a vile argument on the street in which strangers-to-me are cursing each other, I bind Satan as I walk by. And I think this works! It is all about the power in the name of Jesus!
The tactics of the devil are many: possession (very rare), oppression (rare: extraordinary assaults, physical and spiritual), obsession (common: compulsions and addictions), temptation (ordinary) and deception (widespread.") His biggest, best lie is that he does not exist.
If you are not renouncing and defeating Satan, in faith, every day, than you are being played by him...conned, manipulated. You are what the Marxists used to call his "useful idiot."
In renouncing him, in the specific demons, we unveil him and disarm him. Renouncing is not exactlyh prayer as we are not addressing God. Rather, we confidently and assertively address the demons, in the name of Jesus, which is to say in union with Jesus by way of the indwelling Holy Spirit. So it is couched in prayer: before renouncing we invoke the power and presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Afterwards, we invoke a blessing of the Holy Spirit: praying specifically for the blessing that contradicts the curse of the demon. Peace in place of anxiety, serenity in place of anger, chastity in place of lust, hope in place of despair and depression, courage and zeal in place of discouragement. And, of course, we give thanks for the deliverance.
I encourage you, Grandchildren, today and every day to renounce...calmly, confidently, authoritatively, hopefully, definitively...Satan and the specific demons afflicting or tempting you. This is the way to freedom in Christ. And not just for you...for those you love...and for the entirety of Creation!
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