Lately, I’ve been feeling led to write a multi-part series on deliverance (casting out demons). Some believers are very familiar with the theology and practical application of deliverance. However, the majority of believers in America grew up in church environments where deliverance was never talked about, spiritual warfare only got an honorable mention, and demons were considered essentially fictional in our technological age. Others may have grown up in churches that believed in deliverance, but they never were trained to minister deliverance or even given a biblical basis for this biblical theme. Still others question whether it is something that is even relevant in the contemporary church or whether Christians could ever be subject to demonic control. Considering all the differing views and experiences in the American church, I want to present a clear and biblical case for deliverance. I think the topic is not only relevant but essential to the church being all it can be in this season of spiritual warfare. So…I want to address some questions and some practical considerations for this subject in a multi-part blog over the next few weeks.
As many of you know, I became a follower of Jesus in my college years. I came into the kingdom through the influence of cessationist churches. What that means is the church I was part of and was discipled by did not believe the Holy Spirit still works in the same way he did in the first century. They believe that the Holy Spirit still takes up residence in every believe and works to bear his fruit – love, joy, peace, etc. – but, he no longer imparts supernatural, spiritual gifts to his people – healing, prophecy, tongues, miracles, spiritual discernment, etc.
Their view is that God no longer intervenes in his people’s lives in supernatural ways but works only through the natural order of things. In these churches, believers pray for God to influence the surgeon to do his best in some way, but would not pray for direct healing in a person’s body. They would pray for chemo to be effective, but would never command cancer to leave a person’s body. They believe all the miracles in scripture did happen, but God no longer operates in those ways. In their view, New Testament miracles were allowed in the first century as evidence that Jesus was the Son of God and that his apostles wrote the New Testament under the inspiration of the Spirit. Once enough miracles were recorded, those should be sufficient for belief and continuing miracles are not required. This view, of course does not explain all the miracles in the Old Testament or why believers other than the apostles and those who wrote the New Testament, such as Stephen and Philip, also performed great signs and wonders. It would also not explain why supernatural gifts were given to ordinary members of the church as Paul discussed in 1 Corinthians 12-14. None of these were the Son of God nor did they write any part of the New Testament.
As an adjunct to the cessationist view, they tend to downplay the supernatural all together. They really don’t talk about demons as a reality in the 21st century. If someone reported an angelic visitation, they would be highly skeptical. They believe that God only speaks to his people through the written word and no longer speaks to them directly, so that rules out prophecy and words of knowledge, and so forth. Those are the things I was taught when I first became a Christian. God might heal someone directly in response to prayer on very rare occasions, but no one possessed the gift of healing. Miraculous healings were given no credibility. Prophecy was seen as a deception by the enemy and tongues were simply emotionalism unleashed. Deliverance was simply theater. These are churches full of great people who love the Lord, but their theological lens keeps them from accessing the power of the Holy Spirit in many circumstances where it is needed.
For most of my ministry years, I was the staff member to whom most people came for counseling. My God-given temperament was wired for counseling and I had a degree in sociology which leaned in that direction. I went to as many workshops on counseling as possible and did graduate work in that field, but still felt inadequate. Even Christian counseling conferences taught secular approaches to counseling. They might add a prayer or some scripture reading to their approach, but they never dipped into the spiritual realm and its influence on us. I brought my best counseling skills to the table but saw very little dramatic life change in my church. People did their best to live a moral life and manage their addictions, compulsions, depression, anger, shame, etc. and most made some progress…at least for a while. But many defaulted back to their previous state after a few months or as soon as they found themselves in a crisis or under stress,
I assumed the relapses were because of my inadequate counseling, which I’m sure contributed. But there was something else that was lacking. When I read through the New Testament, it seemed that dramatic life change was the expectation not the exception. Afterall, we are new creations in Christ and are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2). Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9-12).
Paul speaks of an expectation of change, of putting those lifestyles behind them relatively soon after coming to Jesus, rather than struggling for years to get free from their conditions. There is no indication that their transformation required professional counseling, the newest drug therapies, or years of twelve-step programs. I’m not saying those things can’t be helpful. They can. But they tend to help us manage issues rather than getting complete victory over those issues.
I finally realized what we were lacking was power. What we were lacking was the ability to deal with not only addictions on a physiological and emotional level, but with spiritual bondage that kept God’s people stuck in the same struggles for years. According to the gospels, the thing that kept people stuck in torment and bondage, was demonic affliction.
In Isaiah 61, the prophet foretold that Messiah would come to preach good news to the poor, heal broken hearts, and set captives free. When Jesus began his public ministry, he preached good news to the poor, healed broken hearts, and set captives free. The freedom part came through deliverance which, according to the gospels, was considered a form of healing. In essence, Jesus and his followers preached the good news of the kingdom and then demonstrated it though the power of the Spirit. That was the New Testament approach to evangelism…not just for Jesus but also for the twelve, the seventy he sent out, and all the other believers empowered by the Spirit.
When God drew me into the ministry of emotional healing and deliverance, I began to see people set free from the things that had kept them in bondage for years. They were set free in hours or weeks, not decades. Although I anticipated they would default back to their old conditions after a few weeks or months, they did not. People who had been subject to fear, depression, suicidal thoughts, pornography, shame, even homosexuality for years, were set free and transformed.
Without the power of the Spirit and the ministry of deliverance, these men and women would still be in bondage to those things that had robbed them of joy and fruitfulness for decades. Is every issue caused by demonic affliction? Of course not. But much more is than we realize. Paul emphatically stated that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly or spiritual realms ((Eph. 6:12). He also declared that we cannot wage war as the world wages war but we must fight with divine weapons (2 Cor. 10:4). Those divine weapons are embodied by the supernatural gifts of the Spirit.
In the gospel of John, Jesus clearly stated, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (Jn. 14:11-12). What had he been doing? He had been preaching, healing, and casting out demons. His statement carries an expectation that those who have faith In Jesus will continue his ministry as he had been doing it. It did not seem to give that expectation and shelf-life of a few decades but spoke to those who have faith until he returns.
To fail to do so, is to depart from the New Testament pattern of ministry for the church. It weakens our ability to evangelize and often leaves our own people in bondage. I have visited with several people who had gotten involved in witches covens. They had left the covens because the coven was “going too far.” I asked them what had prompted them to get involved in witchcraft. They said their lives had been in turmoil and they had gone to the church for help, but the church could not help them because it had no power. Witchcraft offered power so they gave themselves to that. Paul said the kingdom is not a matter of talk, but of power (1 Cor. 4:20). We owe the world power to overcome the enemy. Deliverance is a primary manifestation of God’s power and his kingdom on this earth. It is essential to the life of the church.
More next week….
