Deliverance and Discipleship

As he approached his departure to the Father’s right hand, Jesus gave a directive to his followers.  He declared that he had been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  As a result, he had the right to command those who follow him to go into all the world and make disciples of both people and nations.

Ultimately, all that we do should be an identifiable element of making disciples.  Spiritual warfare is the element that produces freedom from spiritual bondage so that those who have been set free can make progress in their walk with Jesus. Deliverance or healing is not a stand alone event but part of our effort to disciple a person.  It is extremely important to realize that if the other elements of discipleship are not established in the life of the believer (faith, identity, prayer, repentance, time with the Lord, and so forth), those who receive healing and deliverance will quickly lose what they have received. Jesus warned, “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first (Lk.11:24-26).

The man was set free from a demon but the vacancy was not filled with the things of God that are the elements of discipleship. Since a spiritual vacuum remained, the unclean spirit was able to return along with others. The man was then worse off than before he experienced deliverance. Because of that, we must be concerned with fully “discipling” those to whom we minister healing and deliverance.

That process is referenced in John 21 as Jesus asked Peter to affirm his love for him three times – the number of times Peter had denied him.  As Peter professed his love, Jesus charged him to care for the flock of the Chief Shepherd as evidence of that love. He responded to Peter’s responses by saying, “Feed my lambs…Lead my sheep…Feed my sheep.”  In a recent trip to Israel on a study tour, our guide explained that shepherds in Israel will rise early when new lambs have been born to carry them, speak to them, and examine the lamb the for weaknesses that will need attention as the lamb develops.  The shepherd bonds to the lamb, imprints his voice on the lamb, and becomes acquainted with the weaknesses of the little one for whom he will be responsible.  He then will lead the flock into places of protection and nurture and will make sure that they receive their “daily bread” of fresh grass and water. That is the process of discipleship and we are to see to it that those we bring to the Lord or set free in the Lord will receive the care and feeding they need with some special attention given to their weaknesses.

The process takes time.  It will be inconvenient.  It will even be frustrating.  But it is the life of a shepherd and that is what it means to make disciples. “Drive by” deliverance and “on the spot”  healing can be dangerous if we don’t disciple the individual or connect him or her to those who will continue to help that person grow in the Lord. As we continue to press into the realm of spiritual warfare, we must always remember it is not an end in itself but a step in the call to make disciples.

Since the beginning, God’s representatives on the earth – his sons and daughters – have always been given the mission of establishing a godly or heavenly culture on the earth. Jesus reaffirmed that principle when he taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What we need to understand is that through Christ, the Father is now restoring us to the position he always intended his children to possess.  “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).  As God reigns, we too have been given the authority to reign.

As believers, however, most of us do not understand the position and the authority we have been granted in Christ. We tend to see ourselves as mere men and women who differ from the unsaved only in that our sins are forgiven. The psalmist said, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Prov.23:5, KJV).  What we believe about ourselves typically defines our lives.  A positive, biblical view of ourselves and our abilities opens doors for achievement while a negative view of ourselves and our abilities sets limits on what we accomplish because we will not attempt to achieve more than we believe about our own capacities. The truth is that we walk in much more authority than we perceive and our words carry much more weight than we imagine. 

One of the enemy’s primary strategies is to convince God’s children that even though they are saved and forgiven, they are still worthless, incompetent, weak, broken, powerless and, in many ways, displeasing to their Father.  He convinces them that the wholeness, joy, competence, and glory promised to them is only available after the funeral. Spirits of accusation, condemnation,  rejection, and shame and work tirelessly to keep God’s children from walking in their true identity.

Many Christians are limited by the belief that although they are saved, they are disqualified from doing anything significant in the kingdom of God. They see themselves as prisoners rather than princes and orphans rather than royalty in the household of God.  They have no perception of themselves as highly loved and favored and sense no authority or power in their lives at all. They are literally in bondage to shame and rejection and their shattered identity keeps them from fulfilling a destiny that has already been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus.

Since they feel that they have no standing, no power, and no authority they believe that their words have no more significance than they do. Therefore, they are typically careless with their words and certainly do not use their words and authority to bless others or resist the evil one.  Our words reveal our hearts.  Jesus said,”Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mt.12:34). What we believe about who we are and who Jesus is determines our words to a great extent. If you are angry, bitter, insecure, wounded, fearful, feel victimized, and so forth, your words will reflect the beliefs that underlie your self-image. They will be negative, pessimistic, accusing, critical, and demeaning – towards others or yourself.

We have been redeemed to reign and our words carry great power for good or for bad.  They have prophetic power so that the words we speak will begin to create that future for us or for others. Remember the sobering words of Jesus when he said, “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Jn.12:34). Thankfully, even our words are under the blood of Christ, but the verse tells us how serious God is about our words.  If he is that serious, then we should be as well. James tells us, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be” (Ja.3:9-10). Make up your mind to be a blessing and to speak blessings. Ask the Holy Spirit to help.  You matter greatly and so do your words.  Direct their power wisely.

The Book of Genesis reveals God’s original intent for his creation. His intent was to endow mankind with heavenly authority by which men and women would rule the earth on their Father’s behalf. If you carefully scan the language of the first two chapters of Genesis you will see that purpose confirmed. God gave Adam, Eve, and their descendants a mandate. He commanded them not just to be fruitful and multiply but to also rule overthe earth and subdueit (Gen.1:28).  To subdue something is to take dominion or establish authority over that thing. David declared that God crowned man with glory and honor and set him to rule overall the works of His hands (Ps.8:5-6).  Mankind, as represented in Adam and Eve, was crowned so that those made in God’s image might rule over the earth.

God’s original intent, then, was to create man, give him the position of a son or a daughter of the King, and then to place “his children” on the earth to rule as their Father’s representatives.  Ancient kings often gave their grown children territory to rule as lesser kings who were still subject to “the great king.”  Even in the days of Jesus, King Herod only ruled over Judea at the pleasure of Caesar. He was granted his rulershipas “king” as long as he represented the interests of Caesar well.  When it came to actual sons and daughters, the idea was to train them to rule just as their father would rule if he were present. They were his representatives who ruled their territories with his permission and authority.  At his death, one of his heirs would then be prepared to rule the greater kingdom as his or her father would have ruled it and to finish the works and campaigns their father had begun.

Of course, our Father will never die, but he still gave Adam, Eve, and their descendants authority to rule over this planet in his name and to carry out his directives. The intent was that man, in close communion with the Father, would rule just as the Father would rule. I imagine that God spoke to Adam and Eve of such things during their evening walks in the Garden of Eden in the same way that Jesus often spoke about the Kingdom of God when he walked with his disciples.

While on this earth, Jesus perfectly represented God in his character and purposes.  In the gospel of John, we find these two quotes. “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (Jn.5:19),  and  “For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it” (Jn.12:49).  These two quotes embody the idea of a representative who re-presents the one who sent him.  In essence Jesus assured us that he did and said what the Father would do and say if he were physically present on the earth.  He summed it up when he told Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn.14:9). Ultimately, we want to be able to say, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Son.”

Because we represent Jesus on this planet, we should speak only as he would speak in any given situation.  Even our words should be submitted to the direction the Holy Spirit.  Because our words have authority to mobilize the spiritual realm, as we speak we will be setting things in motion that will either support the purposes of God or resist the purposes of God.  We will either be aligned with Christ or with Satan.  In many cases our words will either constitute blessings or curses.

In Ephesians 4:29, Paul instructed the church to let no unwholesome talk come out of their mouths but only that which is good for building others up.  The word unwholesomemeans anything that promotes death, weakness, or decay.  If we demean, speak failure, or speak disaster over others, then we have sinned. James is clear that we should only be sources of blessing and never a source of cursing…even regarding our enemies.

A curse is any language that carries a sentiment that does not affirm, build up, or encourage another person. It is a sentiment that embodies judgment and condemnation.  John tells us that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:16-17). Salvation imparts life. Our words must do the same in every circumstance.  So we are to discipline ourselves to make every word a blessing.  Yes…even at home behind closed doors.

This is Part One of the three part series on the supernatural power of the believer’s  words.

Many of us speak as if our words don’t matter…as if they go out like bubbles and then evaporate into the atmosphere. We write off hurtful words we have spoken with the rationalization  that “we didn’t really mean what we said” or claim that we were  “just kidding”. But scripture says our words are very significant…even having the power of life or death.  To understand the importance of our words, we need to remember who we are. We are those who have been made in the image of God and those who have been made his children through Christ.  We are those who have also been delegated the authority of Christ.

The idea of being made in the image of God is a bit mind-boggling. Theologians have debated exactly what that means for millennia. Whatever it means to be made in God’s image, it certainly means that we have enough characteristics in common with the Creator to communicate with him, to give and receive love from him, for his Spirit to take up residence within us, for deity to put on flesh and live among us as a man, to think as the Father thinks, and to be called his children and his friends …not his pets.

The Psalmist declared, “What is man that you are mindful of him…you made him just a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps.8:4-5). Of all creation, including powerful and majestic angels, only man is said to be madein God’s image. Scripture implies that we have even greater standing in heaven than majestic and glorious angels. Although we were made a little lower than the heavenly beings, Paul reveals that those of us who are in Christ will actually sit in judgment over angels (I Cor. 6:3).  The writer of Hebrews tells us that the angels were created to minister to those who will inherit salvation (Heb.1:14).  In Luke’s genealogy, tracing the fleshly lineage of Christ back to Adam, Adam himself is described as “the son of God” (Lk.3:38).  Luke is not saying that Adam was deity, in the sense that Jesus is God, but that the Father had given Adam the positional standing of a son just as we too have been made sons and daughters of God.

The implications of being made in God’s image are significant.  He has made us to be eternal beings just as he is. God has no beginning and no end.  We do have a beginning but no end. The question is not whether we will live forever, but only where we will live forever. God by nature has free will, therefore, we have free will. Since the spoken words of God have power and authority to create something out of nothing and since we are made in his image, we must consider the possibility that our spoken words also have power and authority to bring things into being…both good and bad.

God, by nature, reigns over all things.  It is also man’s nature to reign since we are made in the image of the King and were made to reign at the outset. When we are willing to reign in submission to the Great King, our impulse to reign is blessed. When we want to reign without being submitted to the Great King, disaster is waiting in the wings.  All men still carry the image of God to some degree, even though it has been twisted by sin and rebellion.  The words of all men still carry some level of authority and creative power.  The words of those who are in Christ, however, carry much more authority and creative power as we represent the King. Because of that, we have a great responsibility to govern our words.

If our words have power and authority, then shooting off our mouth may be the same as shooting a loaded gun into a crowd and then being surprised that someone got hurt.  Jesus declared that on the day of judgment, we will have to give account for every careless word. Obviously. God takes our words seriously as if each one has a consequence. We live in a culture so saturated with words that we tend to discount them, but the spiritual realm appears to hang on every word we speak. Because we are sons and daughters of the King and are seated with him in heavenly realms, what if our words mobilize the spiritual realm to fulfill what we have spoken either as a blessing or a curse over others and  ourselves?  Think about the assignments you have been issuing with your words.  Have your words been accomplishing the work of God or the work of the enemy? This is an uncomfortable question but an important one.  Pray about it.  Ask others if you tend to be a dispenser of blessing or negativity to those around you. Determine to make changes in your speech patterns if that is needed. As believers, we all need to heed our mothers admonition to watch our mouths.

Part 2 will be posted next Tuesday, July 17.

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.” So theyset out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.  Luke 9:1-6

Luke records the moment when Jesus pushed his apostles out of the nest. For a number of months, the twelve he called to be apostles, plus a number of other disciples, had followed Jesus on a daily basis. They had heard him teach on hundreds of occasions and watched him heal, cast out demons, and even raise the dead. It is possible that he had let them perform some of that ministry under his watchful eye but now he was sending them out to do exactly what he had been doing…but this time, without him.

Not only would they be ministering without his presence, but he had also instructed them to go without a staff for protection, without food, and without money. They couldn’t take cash or a credit card or even a change of clothes. He even suggested that entire towns might reject them. It all added up to the possibility of being cold, hungry, dirty, rejected, and, perhaps, embarrassed if healing or deliverance were not accomplished by their commands. All in all, they were heading out on risky business.

The idea, of course, was that they had to learn to trust in God to meet their needs and to empower their ministry. When you venture out without a safety net, you must depend on God or abandon your mission. In doing so, you discover his faithfulness and his sufficiency.  Notice the last line in the verse quoted above…”So they set out and went from village to village preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.”  As they risked the possibility of failure and rejection, God empowered them to do miracles. Faith is tested in the risk of doing those things that will fail miserably unless God shows up. But faith also increases as we do those things, because God does show up.

Many of us want to develop gifts of healing, prophecy, evangelism and so forth but we tend to read and read, attend conference after conference, and practice in safe little settings of like-minded people waiting for an increased anointing so that when we venture out, we will have every assurance of success.  We fear that people will think we are weird and reject us. We fear that the healing we pray for will not manifest and so we will look foolish and the person we prayed for will be disappointed.  We are concerned that demons might not come out or that we only thought there was a demon when no spirit was present at all. And so, often, we want to wait until we have more confidence or keep standing back as we watch others do it and then rejoice in what God does through them.  All the while, Satan whispers that such gifts won’t come to us and any attempt to exercise the gift will end in disaster.

Here’s the thing … we have to put ourselves at risk just like the twelve and just like the seventy he sent out later if we are going to grow in faith and if God is going to work through us.  I’ll take the pressure off right now…not everyone will respond to the gospel; not everyone will be healed; not every demon you command will come out; and not every prophetic word will be on target.  However, as you go out and risk, you will discover the faithfulness of God and you will discover that the outcomes are much more in his hands than yours. Your part is to obey and his part is to work through you. You will also discover that many will respond to the gospel, many will be healed, most will be delivered, and your prophetic words will be on target more and more.  God works in partnership with his people.  As we risk more, we exercise our gifts more.  As we exercise our gifts, they develop more and both our faith and boldness increase. As they increase, God is pleased to work through us more and more as well.

The bottom line is that going out to minister in the arena of the impossible requires a willingness to be totally dependent on God. If he doesn’t show up, nothing happens.  Even in those moments when the gospel is not received, or healing does not manifest, or prophecy seems to miss the mark…God is there and God is pleased because you were willing to risk looking foolish.

We won’t always know why healing didn’t occur or someone chose not to accept salvation.  We won’t always get a clear word or know that we cast out every tormenting demon.  Things get in the way…free will, some unperceived blockage in the spiritual realm, our own inexperience and some days our own doubt.  The willingness to keep going out, to keep praying, and to keep commanding is the thing that pleases our Father the most.

I can imagine Peter confiding in Jesus and saying, “I feel like such an idiot for getting out of the boat and then sinking in the waves so that you had to rescue me.”  And I can imagine Jesus putting his arm around Peter’s shoulder and saying, “Yes, but no one else was even willing to get out of the boat.  Never stop getting out of the boat.” He think he would say the same to us.

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.

Everyday, I’m encounter  believers making decisions based on the idea that what God wants most for us is to be happy.  Not just content but happy, happy, happy.  In principle that is true. After all, David wrote, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps.37:4).  The problem, however,  rests on our notion of what makes us happy.

Some read the verse above and assume that if we serve God in some capacity and sing songs to him on Sunday, he will give us whatever we want as long as we believe that object, person, or circumstance will make us happy.  Unfortunately, that desire often comes from of the flesh rather than the Spirit.  We want a car so we think God should pony up with our dream vehicle.  We want a big salary so we think God should give us favor for the promotion.  We want the girl or the guy and may even think that God is okay with us leaving a spouse that no longer excites us for one that promises passion and romance because…that will make us happy.  All of that is a huge lie from the enemy, but it is a very powerful lie because we live in a culture that reinforces that belief at every level.  How many ads on television push a product that will change your life and assure you that you “deserve” what that product promises.  Honestly, the only thing any of us deserve is hell…and the rest is God’s grace.

A retake on Psalm 37:4 may be in order. First of all, the promise is based on the premise that you delight in the Lord.  You cannot delight in the Lord unless you also delight in his ways, his values, and his priorities.  If you delight in those, then the desires of your heart will line up with his and he will be glad to honor those desires.  Secondly, the verse may be best understood not as God giving you whatever desire springs from you, but God actually planting his desires in your heart so that they become your desires.  He will give you the desires….

Satan is an expert at convincing us that God will give us things that are contrary to his will simply because that is what will make us happy.  As many others have said, God wants us to be holy much more than happy.  The truth is that holiness is what produces long-term happiness. Paul is very clear in Galatians that if we sow to the flesh, we will reap destruction, but if we sow to the Spirit we will reap life.  Those things that we purse based on desires and reasoning from the flesh will eventually produce pain, loss, shame, and destruction. That is God’s promise.  To think differently is to mock God.  Happiness does not lie in that direction, although the devil will assure us that bliss is at the end of the road.

Even more diabolical, is the reality that a person’s decision to chase the desires of the flesh will bring pain, loss, and destruction on others who are innocent bystanders in the event.  Satan always convinces us that our decisions in pursuit of the appetites of the flesh affect only us but they will also affect all those with whom we have connections.  When a spouse leaves his or her mate for another, the spouse who is left behind as well as the children will suffer emotionally, economically, spiritually, relationally and in every other way.  When that person is a believer, the kingdom suffers loss, because once again, Jesus and his ways are discredited in the eyes of the world. Society suffers loss because one more decision has consigned marriage to the bin of disposable relationships. In addition, the sins of the fathers are passed down to the children and so forth.

Satan always convinces the one pursuing desires of the flesh that whatever pain is produced will be short lived and then later everyone will be fine.  That is never true.  The ripples from these decisions go out for decades because one day we decide that God wants us to be happy… on our terms.

Our prayer must be that God places his desires in our hearts rather than insisting that he make good the desires we ourselves have conjured up in our hearts or that Satan has planted there.  Godly desires produce life.  Fleshly desires breed death.  Period.  This “happiness thinking” among believers can be a very subtle thing until it takes root and then flourishes.  It invites in a lying spirit and a spirit of entitlement that both continue to insist that the believer has every right to be happy on his or her terms. Once it flourishes, it seems to undermine all spiritual reason and perception.  Beware of it in your own life and if you see it developing in others, point it out as a matter of concern rather than as a matter for condemnation.  It is a cancer in the church, much better prevented than treated.  If t takes root, it is certainly much better treated early than after it has spread to both the heart and brain.  At that point, life is truly in the balance.

There are seasons of life that overwhelm us. These are the seasons of life in which we can see no apparent solution to what is assaulting us. These are the seasons in which one crisis after another seems to wash over us and we sense that our trouble is more than the experience of living in a fallen world.  We know in our spirit that Satan has his crosshairs on us or our family and is unrelenting in his attacks.   In those seasons it can seem that all that we are doing in prayer and standing on the word doesn’t seem to be winning the day but only keeping our heads barely above the water. Those are the days that I need a revelation of God that is more than him sitting serenely on his throne in heaven.  I need a powerful and passionate rescuer.

I love Psalm 18, because David gives me the picture I need in those seasons.  David understood those seasons more than most.  Although David had been anointed by Samuel to be king over Israel, there were many days for David when the prophecy seemed nebulous at best. For years, Saul was unrelenting in his attempts to find and kill David. There were moments when weariness settled in and David doubted that the prophecy he had received would ever come to pass.  In1Samuel we are told, “But David thought to himself, ‘One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best I can do is escape to the land of the Philistines’” (1 Sam.27:1).  Saul hunted David for years.  David and his men were always out numbered, always on the run. They weren’t living in the palace but in caves and wilderness strongholds. At one point, even David’s own men turned on him.  But in all of that, David discovered that God did know and God did care about him.

David wrote, “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him— the dark rain clouds of the sky. Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

The Lordthundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightning and routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of breath from your nostrils. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me” (Ps.18:6-17).

This is the picture of a Father who hears the cry of a beloved child who is being assaulted by the enemy.  As a parent, if your children were playing in the front yard and you suddenly heard them cry out in fear and saw someone attacking them, you would rise up in anger and tear the door off its hinges as you plunged into the front yard with all the power and wrath you could muster against anyone or anything hurting your children.  You would be breathing fire and hurling lightening bolts if you could. Psalm 18 is a picture of our heavenly Father doing just that.  Some days I need that picture and I need my God to be that Father for me.  On a day when you feel totally overwhelmed by circumstances, it’s okay to ask God to be that Father for you as well.

I think a fair question is why did God wait to ultimately deliver David from Saul when he could have taken Saul out at any time.  I’m sure David wondered that as well. Saul had been picked to be king because he looked “kingly” or “presidential” if you will. He had been installed as king without training and without testing. When an untested heart is given power, the result is usually disastrous.  Proverbs tells us that the earth trembles when a slave becomes king (Pr.30:22). That sounds like a great story, but if a man has not been taught how to use power, he can use it for great harm in the same way that so many lottery winners who had never had wealth were destroyed by the wealth they had always desired.

The years of waiting for deliverance, fighting battles, crying out to God, leading men in hard circumstances, etc. tested and developed David’s heart so that when his prophecy came to pass, he was able to steward the promise in an effective way. I have found that the seasons that have been overwhelming to me were preparing me for something to come.  God’s grace was always sufficient if I had faith that he was there and watching and if I held on to him.  I encourage you to hold on as well.  In those moments, David’s picture of a loving father, rising to rescue his child has been helpful to me.  Maybe it will be helpful for you as well if you are in one of those seasons now.

Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you (Jn.17:18-20).

I don’t know about you, but this verse bothers me.  Jesus seems to be saying that the smallest amount of faith can move mountains and if we are not moving mountains then our faith is truly microscopic. Rarely do I feel that I am moving mountains, so a bit of condemnation creeps up when I look at this scripture as the standard.  The question then becomes whether or not I am understanding this passage correctly.

Without letting myself off the hook for microscopic faith, there is another way to understand this passage.  The word that is translated “little faith” typically means a small amount or lack, but it can also be translated as “a short amount of time” or as “brief.” In the context, Jesus may have been telling his disciples that they didn’t sustain their faith long enough.  When the demon didn’t come out right away, they quit.  Persistence or perseverance is part of faith.  In an instant society, we want it now and are prone to give up if something doesn’t happen quickly. I think we can fall prey to that mindset when it comes to prayer, commanding a demon, or declaring healing. Sometimes, in order to move a mountain, we must persist or endure. The mountain may be moved a shovel full at a time instead of all at once.

James highlights this truth when he says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (Ja. 1:2-4). Sometimes we think that spiritual maturity and great faith always produce the overnight miracles of healing, provision, breakthrough, and so for. Yet James is clear that the quality of endurance is part of spiritual maturity.

In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul exhorts them to “contend for the faith” against ongoing opposition.  That text has the flavor of contending, wrestling, and engaging in conflict.

In his “sermon on the mount,” Jesus taught us, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Mt.7:7-8). The verbs in this passage are “present progressive.”  They could be translated as keep asking, keep knocking, and keep seeking.  After you have kept on, your prayers will be answered.

Our faith then is not always measured by the immediate miracle.  Sometimes it is measured by a belief that God is hearing my prayers and storing them up until the movement when they will be answered in a powerful way. Persistence can be the measure of my faith. Even in the context of deliverance, such as the one in which the disciples of Jesus could not cast out the spirit, we may need to go after that spirit more than once, believing that the power and authority that God has given us weakens the devil’s stronghold each time we command and each time we declare the word of God over it. At some point, when we have persevered, the walls of that stronghold will crack and the enemy will flee. We may think that the walls of Jericho came down all at once, but they came down after seven days of establishing authority in the spiritual realm by marching around the city.

Often, the enemy wins by just holding on long enough for us to give up. In those moments, our faith was sufficient in one sense but too brief for the stronghold to fall. We did not endure. Paul’s life and ministry was defined by endurance. He described it with the following words.  “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor.4:8-9). Basically, he said that they kept getting knocked down, but always got up and pressed ahead.  Their faith was in the final victory if they kept going.

Whatever you have been asking for, keep contending. Our faith is enough if it is not too brief.

Occasionally, I have people ask why only a few churches have any kind of defined Freedom Ministry to help their people move past old wounds, broken hearts, addictions, depression, and demonic affliction. The core of our freedom ministry is Free Indeed, which is an eight-week class built around small group dynamics as well as teaching followed by an all day experience we call Freedom Weekend that activates everything we have talked about and prayed about for eight weeks.

Twice a year we offer a class on Sunday and another on Wednesday.  We typically have 40-45 participants in each class so that on Freedom Weekend we are ministering to around 90 people.  Each spring we offer a Wednesday only class.  We have been offering this format for about eight years and every class fills up every time so that close to two hundred people go through Free Indeed each year. On average, about 30% are people from the community – Baptists, Methodists, Church of Christ, Catholic, Bible Church, Episcopalian, and other community churches. They nearly all wonder why their church doesn’t offer something similar to what we do because it seems basic to the life of a believer.

I wonder that also.  After all, Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted and to set captives free (Isa. 61, Luke 4). We consistently see more life change in eight weeks than most of our participants have experienced in ten years. This isn’t because we have discovered some revelatory approach to discipleship.  I believe that all the principles and perspectives taught in Free Indeed should be categorized as Christianity 101. They are the foundational principles of our faith when you take Paul’s admonition seriously that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces. Paul clearly states that yet few churches equip their people for spiritual warfare.

We believe that Jesus came to empower his church with divine weapons that can overcome the past, deep wounds, and demonic affliction. Victory over those issues produces significant transformation in weeks or months rather than decades.  However, what we consistently find is that most believers have no expectation of significant change in their lives beyond forgiveness.  Some of the lack of expectation is due to the fact that their churches have preached a gospel without power.  After becoming Christians, they found that their faith seemed to have no power to overcome deep wounds from their past, addictions in the present, depression, suicidal impulses, etc.  Where those reached serious proportions, their church referred them to counselors or clinics in the community that were often secular.  The message is that Jesus has no help for serious issues beyond some simple encouragement and a prayer.  When secular therapy does not give them victory over their issue, they lose all expectation for significant transformation this side of heaven.  Our first goal in Free Indeed is to rebuild an expectation that God is in the business of radical life change and he can and wants to do it for you.

Secondly, we maintain a perspective that, in most cases, hindrances to growth and change exist more in the spiritual realm than in the emotional or psychological realm of the individual.  We move into the realm of curses, generational sins, our identity in Christ, and demonic affliction in order to remove what seem to be immovable barriers to healing and freedom.  Secular therapy does not touch the spiritual realm nor employ divine weapons so issues are managed, at best, rather than overcome.  Churches that don’t acknowledge these realities or teach about them keep their people from experiencing the power of the kingdom that Jesus demonstrated. They tend to produce a form of godliness while denying the power of the kingdom.  Decades of silence and avoidance of real spiritual warfare has allowed a huge accumulation of spiritual junk in the souls and family lines of God’s people.

When God’s people know who they are, when they are armed with an expectation for power, and armed with basic spiritual weapons to be used against the enemy, radical transformation can happen in weeks or months rather than decades.  We have seen it over and over again in our church.  Other churches that have developed Freedom Ministries in different forms report the same thing.

So why do few churches offer ministries that have such an impact?  One reason, of course, is a theology that doesn’t allow for the miraculous power of God operating in the life of individuals today.  That same theology does not recognize the impact of the spiritual realm in the lives of God’s people. When the expectation of miracles ceases, so does the faith for them and the loss of power from the church. Transformation takes supernatural power. No power, no transformation.

I think a second reason that many churches do not have Freedom Ministries is fear…especially on the part of senior pastors. Let’s be honest, by nature many senior pastors are high on control and freedom ministries, by their nature, deal with elements that are somewhat unpredictable. Many senior pastors fear that these ministries will get weird and hurt their church or people in their church.  In addition, extreme people are often attracted to these ministries and can make others uncomfortable.  The answer, however, is not to avoid ministries that can heal and free large numbers of believers, but rather to embrace such a ministry, mainstream it, and train leaders to be effective without being weird.  They in turn train others to be effective without being weird and to train them to be submitted to church leadership. We are glad to train other churches to do what we do and I’m sure other Freedom Ministries are willing to do the same.  Avoidance is not the answer but sound theological and practical training is the answer.

Does ministry in this arena get weird?  It depends on what you call weird. Demons manifesting in people and being cast out with a scream seems weird until you realize it is the norm in spiritual warfare.  It doesn’t have to get out of hand, but it doesn’t mirror tidy little church services on Sunday.  I agree that church services are not the place for these things to happen, but they need to happen somewhere. If you cannot tolerate the ragged or unexpected, then you will not be involved in spiritual warfare, but neither will your people find freedom and transformation.  Every believer should be equipped to break the power of the enemy. That alone would transform churches and communities.  I hope your church has a freedom ministry of some kind or will develop one soon.  We would be glad to help, but more than that, the Holy Spirit is quite willing to help.