For those who minister in the arena of deliverance, there is always something new to learn. There is nothing more frustrating than to know a spirit is tormenting a person, but at the end of the day you also know you have not been able to drive out that spirit.  Sometimes there is still something that continues to give that spirit a legal right to remain.  It might be a secret sin that has not been confessed or repented of. It might be a generational curse that has not yet been dealt with. It might simply be that the person does not truly want to give up a sin, a sinful relationship, or the company of a spirit that is posing as a friend or protector.  However, there are times when the individual truly wants to be free, has confessed every conceivable sin, and you are confident you have nullified every curse and yet the person does not get freedom.

When that occurs, we need to be open to learning more from those who have more experience or those who have had different experiences and, thus, have discovered some things through trial and error or through revelation that we have not learned. I don’t think we should be open to every approach that comes down the road because some are simply weird and seem to be more from the flesh than from the Spirit.   But we should be open to those approaches that seem to resonate with our spirit and that do not violate biblical principles.  The truth is that sometimes we have to try a new approach before we know whether it is effective or not.  If it is effective, keep it in your tool box and if it is not, discard it.

There is one approach that we discovered from Francis MacNutt in the past year or so that has been helpful in the realm of occult spirits or spirits of witchcraft that you may find helpful if you find yourself being frustrated  when you come up against some of these nasty critters. This comes from MacNutt’s book entitled Deliverance from Evil Spirits  – A Practical  Manual.  What we have found helpful is thinking about the added dimension of a person being dedicated to Satan or some demonic spirit rather than just being afflicted because they dabbled with horoscopes, Ouija boards, or fortune tellers.  Since we have begun considering that possibility, we have discovered that a number of people have had parents or grandparents who intentionally or unintentionally dedicated their families to spirits or organizations who have occult underpinnings.

In many cases, the parents or grandparents thought they were providing protection or blessings through spirits that they did not recognize as evil.  In many cultures, there is a real mix of folk magic, cultural beliefs,  and the veneration of ancestral spirits with Christianity so that those who practice “white magic” or who call on ancestral spirits for protection think it is all good. Those who were brought up in false religions (especially eastern religions)  also had parents who prayed for their children in the name of false gods (demonic spirits) and dedicated their families to those spirits thinking that they were benevolent gods.   It seems that some who have gone deep into Free Masonry may also have dedicated their families to occult spirits attached to that organization by simply dedicating their families to the organization by word or desire. We have also ministered to individuals who personally dedicated themselves to Satan or entered into a contract for one reason or another.  These “dedications” may add an extra dimension to deliverance.

Let me simply quote MacNutt for your consideration because we have found this helpful and you might as well.  Ask the Holy Spirit about it first and then try it for effectiveness if the Spirit gives you a green light.

“Most people, even those in deliverance ministry, have not heard of seals; yet they are a major reason we get stuck in difficult cases. Like many satanic elements, it is a parody of our being sealed by the Holy Spirit in holy baptism. In ancient times an imprint of the owner’s seal was put onto belongings so they could not be broken into…Christian tradition holds that baptism impresses on you a spiritual seal that symbolizes dedication to God and protection by God from evil.  Similarly, a person can be sealed for Satan, signifying that he is dedicated and belongs to Satan in some way and he is protected and cannot be freed until the seal is broken. It may seem strange, but this seal is a spiritual reality, like a spiritual shield, that covers and protects an evil spirits in a person until it is broken.”

If a person has dedicated himself or entered into an agreement with Satan himself, he or she should do the following. To break these seals, a person should openly declare his faith in Jesus Christ again as Lord and Savior and renounce Satan and all the works of Satan.  He should renounce all the spiritual forces that set themselves against God, and all sinful desires that draw him away from God. MacNutt insists that this should be done three times and then the person also needs to specifically renounce any dedication or contract he or she made with the devil or a demonic spirit three times. Having done that, the seal can be broken that has ben protecting these occult spirits.  You may simply say, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ, by his power and his authority, I break and remove every seal of Satan and set you free by the sword of the Holy Spirit.” Having done that, you can go back to commanding those spirits to leave.  It seems that

if someone else dedicated a person to Satan, he or she should do the same thing but probably only needs to do it once rather than three times.

I wanted to share this with those who minister deliverance because I had not run across this insight in other books on deliverance and we have found it helpful and effective in our ministry. Again, pray about it and test it.  Hopefully, it will help you break the power of Satan in the life of someone who have been unable to find freedom before.