DELIVERANCE
Deliverance is a very important ministry that most of the Church has forgotten. One of the many reasons Jesus came to the earth was to “set the captives free.”
In a sense one can argue that the whole human race is being held captive by Satan – the “god of this world” and his demon forces; however, the Word says:
“He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” ♥ I John 3:8
Jesus is the Word of God and He can destroy any of “the works of the devil” in your life if you will simply believe the Word and act on it by faith. Yet many people who are bound are unable to get free on their own – either because they don’t know how or because they do not understand the spirit realm and demon activity. Because the Church has not taught Christians about the Dark Kingdom and demon forces and also because most preachers teach erroneously that a Christian cannot be possessed by demons, Christians who have the right to be free are still held captive.
In October of 1991 during my time of private worship of the Lord He spoke something to me that shocked me greatly. He said, “There are more people in America today in need of deliverance than there are in need of healing.” Today we see this more and more. We also see something else coming to pass today that He spoke to me back in 1980 when He said, “Son, the devil is going to put cancer on more and more Christians.” Just this morning I received a phone call on our ministry prayer line from an African man over here for a Benny Hinn conference who is in the hospital being attacked with a blood cancer. I talk a lot about the spiritual side of cancer in the Second Edition of Mysterious Secrets of the Dark Kingdom. You need to understand how to deal with it and other spiritual attacks to keep your family “cancer free.”
Sin
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me”
Both healing and deliverance are from the Lord; He says so in His Word. If we are in covenant with Him (and if you are a true Christian then you are in covenant with Him) then He is obligated to fulfill His Word and heal or deliver us. I’ve learned over the years in ministry that there are only two things that can keep a Christian from receiving the Promises of the Lord; they are sin and unbelief. David understood that sin was a barrier to having his prayers answered. The reason is simple – sin erects a barrier between you and God.
In the ‘90s the Lord said to me when I was ministering at a conference in Oregon, “Tell the people not to come up here for prayer if there is any unrepented sin in their life.” Christians have been universally taught that sin separates you from God but that the Blood of Jesus washes away their sin. This is true. However, they’ve not been taught the awful nature of sin and the fact that when we sin it has devastating consequences upon the human being – spirit, soul and body. There is even a large ministry in Colorado Springs that teaches Christians erroneously that they never have to worry about sin again once they’re saved – that all their future sins are wiped out. This does not agree with the Bible, especially I John.
God wants us to walk with Him and the Word says that two cannot “walk together except they be agreed” (in agreement). A person in sin cannot stand before a Holy God; that is why the Word admonishes us to “be holy as I am holy” and “without holiness no one shall see the Lord.” We have to strive to live, holy, sinless lives. We will still sin from time to time but we should strive to live holy lives and we should be quick to repent. I’ve found that people who are quick to repent of sin not only walk in better health but they also seem to know the Lord better.
Make a quality decision to live a holy, sinless life. Don’t make excuses for yourself – what I call spiritual rationalization – by excusing sin as if it’s some trivial matter – it’s not! Jesus suffered and died for our sins – we should not treat them lightly!
Sin is a doorway that demons use to gain access to you, your children (yes, your sins can cause access to your children) and others in your family. Demons operate through The Law of Sin and Death to have a legal right to afflict you. You must shut the door of sin in your life or you will never receive deliverance. Be quick to repent of sin that the Holy Spirit convicts you of and strive to live a holy, sinless life.
One of the important aspects of deliverance ministry is determining what legal right a demon or demons have to access a person; normally it is either their sin or the sins of their ancestors (sometimes called generational curses).
Unbelief
Unbelief is normally the biggest problem for Christians that keeps them from receiving healing or deliverance. We’ve found this is especially true for Spirit-filled Christians who know that Jesus still heals and delivers today. Their problem is that they know it with their heads but they don’t have faith – they’ve not developed their faith in these areas. My experience is that the Lord normally overlooks this in denominational people because they’ve not been taught that He still heals but He seldom overlooks it in Spirit-filled Christians. You are expected to be more mature and understand these spiritual things. Yes, sadly, God will let you die or stay in bondage if you don’t develop your faith and learn to stand on the Word.
The more mature you are spiritually the more the Lord will be very strict in holding you accountable to what the Word says. Many Christians die prematurely or else never fulfill God’s will for their lives simply because they do not spend enough time in the Word and develop their faith and spiritual sensitivity to hear the word of the Lord. Remember a very key verse of scripture in this regard and obey it every day: “Man does not live by bread alone.” (Mt. 4:4 and Lk. 4:4) It’s the Word of God that is the food for your spirit which causes your spirit to grow and mature. It’s only when your spirit becomes “full grown” that you are better able to hear the Lord and have revelation knowledge. It’s revelation knowledge that makes one understand through the Gift of Discerning of Spirits or The Word of Knowledge exactly which spirits are troubling a person and how they gained entry.
An important aspect of spiritual warfare for both deliverance and healing is faith – the Word says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” How do you resist him? The great Apostle Peter tells us how we are to resist him – by being “firm in our faith.” You resist the devil just like Jesus did – with the Word of God and being “firm” in your faith.
Deliverance is a Process
When I first wrote Mysterious Secrets back in early 1991, there was not much available in the way of deliverance ministry. This is one reason the Lord had me include a section on it in the book. What I’ve learned about this ministry I did not get from any book but rather from the Holy Spirit. Deliverance and, indeed, all spiritual things are much like physical things – the more experience a dentist has in extracting teeth the better he will be. The more experience a minister has the more easily he can recognize spirits and spiritual problems – especially if he has a good gift of Discerning of Spirits (I Cor. 12). I can recognize many spirits just by looking at a person.
Because deliverance is a process the length of time it takes for a person to receive complete deliverance is a function of many things: (1) whether they have any unrepented sin in their life that they refuse to deal with, (2) how pure their heart is, (3) how long the spirit(s) have been in there, (4) the strength of the spirits possessing a person and how strongly they are reinforced by the Powers and Principalities or even Satan himself, (5) the knowledge and experience of the minister who deals with the demons, and (6) the degree of anointing upon the person doing deliverance, i.e., casting out the demons.
For a more detailed outline of deliverance ministry and how to operate in it please refer to Mysterious Secrets of the Dark Kingdom. Every born-again Christian is expected to “cast out demons”; it was a commandment from the Head of the Church given in The Great Commission of Mark 16. That means Jesus expects you to do it just as He expects you to save the lost. So you should get started right away. Remember, the Word says that we (Christians) “have power and authority over all demons.” Be about the Lord’s business in this area.
