This, the third and final part of the Spiritual Warfare blog series, is about deliverance. Now, deliverance is a rather lengthy topic, and since this is a blog and not a lesson or a book, at the end of it I will give you a short list of reliable references on the subject so you can increase your knowledge of it and how to do it yourselves, although I say emphatically that it would be very good if you were shown how by a minister who knows deliverance. Unfortunately, in this lukewarm, Laodicean period of the Church Age there are not many who do. So what is deliverance?
Put simply, deliverance is the freeing of someone from demons and the bondage caused by demonization. Deliverance is “the children’s bread.” In Numbers, when spies were sent to give a report on the Promised Land before the Israelites were initially supposed to take it, Caleb noted that the land’s inhabitants, giants, were “our bread” (Numbers 14:5-9). In the Gospels, when Jesus noted that it was not fitting to take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs, it was in the context of a Syrophoenician (Gentile) woman’s daughter who was subsequently delivered from demons (Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30). We see such terms and phrases as “demon-possessed” and “possessed by demons”, but based on the Biblical Greek of the New Testament the correct translation is “demonized.” Remember, demons are Satan’s foot soldiers, the evil spirit beings he sends to attack people directly. Demons are the disembodied spirits of the giants, the angel-human hybrids which appeared both before and after the Flood (Genesis 6:4). This assertion appears not only in apocryphal books but also in the writings of respected early church fathers such as Athenagoras, Lactantius, and Origen, for example.
If you are a regular reader of the Bible you know that demonization and deliverance are only discussed in the New Testament, although evidently exorcism was already known by the Jews because there were Jewish priests who practiced this (Acts 19:13-14). It was Jesus who gave authority to the disciples and, by extension, to all believers to have power over demons (Matthew 10:1; Luke 10:17-20; Mark 16:15-18). There are two questions we must answer before we go further: (1) Can a Christian have a demon? and (2) What are the meanings of such terms as oppression, possession, and demonization?
First, a Christian can have one or more demons (nearly always it is more than one). Why? Because all human beings, whether born again or not, have a body, a soul, and a spirit. Remember in Genesis where God said, “Let Us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26-27). Just as God is a triune being—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:7-8)—so man also is triune, with a body, a soul, and a spirit:
1 Thessalonians 5:23: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
It is because of this triune setup that Christians can be demonized. However, we cannot be possessed, and that leads to the answer to our second question.
Demonization describes that condition in which someone is being indwelt by one or more demons, whereas oppression and possession address varying degrees of demonization. Oppression, which is far and away the more common case, is where a person is being attacked by one or more demons on a regular basis. These demons may drive the person to lust sexually, to drink heavily, to want to beat people up, and so on. Of course, the flesh is capable of all this without demonic assistance, but when demons get involved, these urges are much harder or downright impossible to resist. Possession, which is actually rather rare, is the complete control of a person by one or more demons. Christians cannot be possessed by demons because, when we are born again, the Holy Spirit takes up residence within our spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14), and He absolutely will not allow demons to dwell with Him. Demons can still attack our bodies and even our souls, the soulish realm being made up of the mind and the heart where our intellect, will, likes, dislikes, and emotions all reside.
It is worth noting that our body, soul, and spirit can also be likened to the components of the temple of Solomon. The outer court can be likened to the body. The holy place in the temple but outside the Holy of Holies can be thought of as the soul, while the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was stored, can be thought of as the spirit and just as the Ark resided there, so the Spirit of God, as noted above, dwells in our spirit once we are saved. The various windows and rooms of the temple are part of the structure also and correspond to spiritual entry and exit points (windows); character, personality, and roles in life (rooms); and the mind, the will, and the emotions (the three levels of rooms in the temple). Think also of “the inmost body” or “the inner depths of the heart” (Proverbs 18:8, 20:30).
When demons attack people they create strongholds (bases of operation) in them which increase their bondage to whatever destructive habits the demons are trying to instill in them. Deliverance frees people both of demonic entities and of demonic bondages. Demons are always looking for ways to attack and control people. They have more of a free hand with the lost (2 Timothy 2:26), but they have an important reason to attack Christians: To make us as ineffective as possible in fulfilling the Lord’s mission for us (Matthew 28:18-20). If they can get believers to forfeit their salvation (Hebrews 6:4-6, 10:26-31), these are additional trophies for the enemy. We as born-again people do not have to be demonized, but many are because of doors being opened to demonic activity in their lives.
The routes to the entrance of demonic activity are disobedience to God; trauma (especially childhood trauma); and generational curses or sins. Trauma can be physical, psychological, or both. It is very unfair for a child to be saddled with demonization, but the kingdom of darkness does not fight fair. It is comprised of spirit beings who are totally evil and totally dedicated to evil, without a shred of sentiment or conscience in them. Generational curses are the creation and propagation of negative cycles from one generation to the next. These cannot only entail bad behaviors such as drunkenness or criminal activity, but can also manifest in physical and mental issues such as diabetes or chemical imbalances in the brain. While demons do not always produce illnesses—living in a fallen world with inherent biological corruption and deterioration does plenty in this area also—they certainly can cause or worsen them. And just as there are routes which open doors to demonization, there are numerous places in the body through which they can enter, such as the eyes, the ears, and the mouth, just to name a few.
Should a lost person be given deliverance? No. It is possible for someone who does not know the Lord to be delivered and immediately saved (Acts 16:16-19). The key phrase there is “immediately saved”. If anyone who performs deliverance decides to do this on a lost person, there had better be a strong bearing of witness by the Holy Spirit to proceed, as in a revelation of the Lord knowing this person will get saved right after deliverance. Why is this so important? Remember, no demon can possess a Christian. The Holy Spirit protects us against that. Also remember that while demon possession is rare, it can still happen, and demons generally have a freer hand with the lost than with the saved. Notice what Jesus says here:
Matthew 12:43-45a: “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first…”
I reiterate here that not everything is caused by demons. There are people who suffer from physical and/or psychological maladies that are not demonically driven. It is not always easy to ascertain what is causing a problem, especially knowing the fact that issues can be caused by physical and/or emotional factors with demonization occurring in tandem. The person who thinks that demonization may be occurring should be professionally evaluated or treated first for any ongoing problem be it physical or psychological. A strong indicator of demonization is when a habit, thought pattern, or ailment will not go away or stay away despite treatment. Even when a case for demonization is established, ongoing professional treatment may be needed. That is the call of the medical and mental health specialists, not ours. Also, it is essential that the person in need of deliverance must want to be set free.
In general, demons have no legal access to Christians, but when entry routes and/or other doors are open to them they can enter in and start doing their dirty work. Also, when a believer does not sincerely want to be free of an issue this gives demons the right to “hold ground” in that person’s life; that is, to remain present and not be subject to removal. The right to choose has always existed. Lucifer (now Satan) was free to choose whether to obey God or to lead a rebellion against Him. In the Garden of Eden God gave Adam and Eve a choice of whether or not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:8-9, 15-17). People have always been given the ability to choose or reject Him (Joshua 24:14-15; John 3:16-17; Revelation 22:17).
But when a believer truly wants to be set free from demonization, demons have to go because of the authority we have been given over them by Jesus Christ. And once they are gone, demons will try to return. The Matthew 12 passage warning of the return of demons also has an application to delivered Christians. Therefore, deliverance must be maintained. Periodic “cleansings” in the form of self-deliverance or, if need be, full-scale deliverance sessions are needed. Demons virtually always operate in groups, and if one tactic has failed to work on a believer then another one will be tried. The same old tactics and temptations will also periodically be brought back against a Christian in order to catch him or her off guard. Demons never give up because they are not only extremely persistent by nature, the kingdom of darkness overall is a tireless and tenacious enemy. Satan and his legion of absolute evil will fight until the last fallen angel and the last demon are judged and thrown into the lake of fire, so we cannot become complacent. We don’t have to be obsessively militant, looking for demons behind every bush or around every corner, but at the same time we cannot be lazy. We are in a spiritual war. There are a lot of details involved in deliverance and its various aspects, too many for a blog. Now that I have brought this issue to your awareness, you can click the Contact tab on this website and send us any questions you may have about it. Also, here is a list of resources which will help greatly expand your knowledge of deliverance. Some of these may be out of print or unavailable in bookstores, but most of the time you can find things on Amazon or eBay if you cannot find them anywhere else, including hard-to-find books.
DELIVERANCE RESOURCES:
1. “Deliverance,” Level 3, Lesson 4 of the Remnant Bible Study Course, this website.
2. Pigs in the Parlor – The Practical Guide to Deliverance by Frank and Ida Mae Hammond.
3. Spiritual Warfare – Christians, Demonization, and Deliverance by Dr. Karl I. Payne.
4. Everyone’s Guide to Demons and Spiritual Warfareby Ron Phillips.
5. Demon Hit List by John Eckhardt.
6. The Secrets to Deliverance by Alexander Pagani.
7. Planos Spirits! – The Cause & Cure of Mental Illness by Michael W. Smith, M.S., C.R.C., C.D.M.S., (R.). (For this resource go online at hardcorechristianity.com or contact via regular mail at Hardcore Christianity, P.O. Box 1116, Sun City, Arizona 85372. You can also call (602) 636-5800).
