In 1988, the year before I attained unto visions, I was quite obsessed with the thought that maybe my basic problem was that I was demon possessed. I had just come through four tumultuous years in Tulsa, Oklahoma which some have called “The Buckle of the Bible Belt.” In truth, it was much worse than that. It was also the buckle of the burgeoning Health and Wealth “Gospel,” and I had gotten thrown out of so many meetings around town crying out against it, that I became something of the entertainment for the night.
The animosity toward me was so strong and universal that at times it was gaslighting my own sanity. So in time I became obsessed with a fringe question of those days, “Can a Christian have a demon?” After spending considerable time listening for anything going on inside of me, I came to the depressing conclusion that I probably did! Worse yet, it seemed by the cacophony of voices that maybe I had more than one! They even seemed to have a leader and spokesdemon named “Bruiser” who kept talking back to me.
It didn’t take long before I decided I needed to dispossess Bruiser and all of his roots if I were ever to get any relief. As I looked into it though, I came to realize there were not a lot of circles into this kind of ministry, but there was one in Chicago and they were having a conference soon. Traveling there was very inconvenient and expensive, but I was a desperate man!
When I arrived there I was aghast at the appearance of the guy who headed the ministry. He must have been 500 pounds, literally! God he was huge! Naturally I wondered if he had a demon of gluttony.
The first night of the conference ended with a mass deliverance session with all these people from his church descending upon me on the floor, screaming and spraying all over my face. Amazingly I actually seemed to feel a little movement inside, but then they inexplicably sent everybody home for the night! Worse yet, they never had another session the rest of the weekend!
Needless to say I was steamed, and went back to Tulsa thoroughly disgusted with the whole subject. So what did I do? I decided I would, “Learn To Live With My Inner Demons,” what else?
Of course, “living with” in my case means constantly yelling at Bruiser to “Shut up and submerge!” It’s crude but it works for me.
Thus was born Lord of Bruiser. Even the name sounds empowering. Better yet, this rapprochement led to the revelation that it’s really alright to be at peace with your inner multiples as well. From this point on, my skills really began to improve.