Chapter Four

Deliverance Jesus’ Way

Salvation is the Greek word soteria, which denotes deliverance, preservation, salvation.

This point is made again in Acts 4:12:

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

“Saved” is the Greek word Sozo. “To save” is used (as with the noun soteria “salvation”) of material and temporal deliverance from danger, suffering, oppression, pain, etc.

The question now is: How do we as believers appropriate the provisions of the Father to ourselves by faith?” The Apostle Peter provides the answer in 2 Peter 3:14-18:

Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. And account that the longsuffering of Our Lord is SALVATION; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you. As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both NOW and FOR EVER. AMEN.

Faith is not a mind set or naming and claiming what God has revealed through our Lord Jesus Christ, but by growing in knowledge and grace. Grace is a whole lot more than unmerited favor. It is the power of God unto salvation, which is deliverance from the power of sin and the devil. Without deliverance from the powers of darkness, we will be limited in the fulfillment of the promises of God and our inheritance in the Kingdom of His Dear Son. Once we know the provision of God the Father, we receive it by faith, and then transmit the promise of that into our daily lives by becoming doers of the Word, not just hearers and claimers. We literally possess our inheritance in the Kingdom of God. We take the land and strip the enemy of his power over our loved ones and our families.

Renouncing the “Hidden Things”

Let us examine what the Holy Spirit revealed to the church in Paul’s writings in 2 Cor. 3:17,18 and 4:1,2:

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Therefore seeing we have this ministry . . we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by open demonstration of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”

The word “renounce” means to forsake or put away by testimony or prayer, through words. The first step is to verbally and out loud break curses and confess the iniquities of your ancestors, which may very well be the root of your problems.

Rom. 13:11,12,14 also makes this clear:

And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. . . . But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh.

Jesus made many provisions for the believer to be made free from sin and from any demonic influence hampering his relationship with God. The enemy of the Church has set up many barriers to keep us from walking in the freedom and abundant life that the Lord Jesus Christ has provided for us. Our Savior has also freely given authority to every believer so he can win and not lose.

Jesus said:

The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

Here again we have the word “might” which clearly indicates that we “might not.” Webster’s dictionary defines might as “probable or possible.”

Promises and Provisions

We are learning, in ministering to God’s people, that sometimes we don’t know how to pray and must depend on the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the truth about deliverance and healing, which was provided in the atonement.

The promises and provisions of God the Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ are not probable or possible but are completed “in Christ.”

What, then, could possibly keep us from receiving all that God intended, such as the abundant life and freedom from the forces of evil? Let us search the Scriptures for the answer.

God the Father said, “This is My Son, hear him” (Mk. 9:7). Clearly, the Father commanded us to listen and obey the words Jesus spoke during His ministry on earth.

Jesus said, “Learn of me. . . . My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:29,30). The Father said “listen,” and Jesus said “learn.”

We must open our ears to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Churches.

Jesus said, “I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter. That is, the Holy Ghost. God the Father, the Son of God, and the Spirit of God are all interacting in our lives to assure us that we are more than conquerors through Christ, who loved us. And if God be for us who can be against us?

Hallelujah!! Say it with me, “In Jesus’ name we don’t have to take it anymore!”

Jesus said,

He that believeth on me, the works that I do you shall do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father (John 14:12).

Jesus only did what he saw the Father do and only said what the Father told him to say. Through the provision of God and Jesus Christ, we can, as men and women, walk as Jesus walked and so glorify the Father.

We can, like Jesus, do the will of the Father. Thus we are ambassadors for Christ, for we have been reconciled to God, and the Word of reconciliation is in our hearts. Why? So the world can be reconciled to God.

Therefore, if any man be “in Christ,” he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, ALL things are become new. And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:17, 18a).

Yes, we are “in Christ,” and the Father put us there. He drew us to Christ, quickened our mortal bodies, and put us “in Christ” when we were born again from above.

What Did Jesus Do?

What Are We Doing?

Jesus was constantly putting the devil and evil spirits in their place by casting them out of God’s children.

He told the woman from Canaan whose daughter was vexed with a demon: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the HOUSE of Israel” (Mt. 15:21-28). In other words, deliverance is only for God’s people and not unbelievers.

Jesus further added, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread and to cast it to the dogs.”

Deliverance was never intended to be ministered to anyone but God’s own people. In fact, we must have faith, grace, and salvation just to qualify for deliverance from evil spirits.

Jesus said, “Learn of Me.” If we are ever going to do the works that Jesus did, we better use the same methods and means of doing things. If we do not know what Jesus did, then we must examine the Scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit and His Divine knowledge to pray through us with groanings too deep for articulate speech. In other words: Pray in tongues as the Holy Spirit gives utterance!

In the ministering of deliverance, we must learn to depend solely upon the Holy Spirit for words of knowledge, words of wisdom, and the discerning of spirits to help free those who are in bondage. When you try everything you know, and there is no fruit, “pray in your most holy faith in the Spirit” (Jude 20) and “according to the will of the Holy Ghost (Rom. 8:17).

Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit would only reveal to us that which came forth from Him and the Father, and He would lead us into all truth and even tell us “things to come.” Thank God for the Holy Ghost, our Comforter and Helper.

Even Jesus was led of the Holy Spirit when He was in human flesh in this world. You can be sure if Jesus needed the Holy Spirit, we need Him even more if we are to minister as Jesus did. It is the one and self-same Spirit. The same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead now dwells in you and me.

Why You Need the Holy Spirit

The promise of the Holy Spirit, by God the Father, was for every blood-bought, born-again believer. Jesus said, “I will pray the Father, and He will send you another Comforter.” The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire is for everyone who has confessed Jesus as Lord, and “no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (1Cor. 12:3).

The Apostle Paul wrote: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24,25). Further, the apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so with the MIND I serve the law of God but with the flesh [or natural man] the law of sin.”

The Apostle Paul understood that right thinking was important to his walk with the Lord. He had received the MIND of Christ and was given a spirit of power, love and a sound MIND (2 Tim. 1:7).

Romans 8:1-17 explains the provision of God for the flesh or natural man. It was revealed to us in Romans 6:6: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin MIGHT be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” There is that word again — “might.”

The word “destroyed” in this verse means “made of no affect” or simply that the flesh or old Adam life will no longer dictate your activities anymore. Instead, the Holy Spirit and your born-again spirit, through the Word and the Christ-life in you, brings your mind to serve the law of God. Therefore, your body can no longer do the things that it used to do. Why not?

Galatians 5:17 explains: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh . . . and you cannot do the things that you would.” You can no longer do things the way you are used to, or the way you used to do them.

You now serve God with a “sound mind” and the “mind of Christ” you received when you were saved. The end result is that your soul becomes in subjection to your spirit man. As a son of God through adoption, you are led of the Spirit of God, and you begin to do those things that please the Father.

Romans 8:9 sums it all up: “But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” What a terrifying statement.

This verse reveals that some believers (so-called) are not really saved because they only have a relationship with Christ in the natural and not in the Spirit. True worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth. That means in the Holy Ghost and in Jesus’ Name, which is Spirit and Truth.

Jesus Came Preaching Deliverance

Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the anointed One, openly declared the purpose of his coming:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:18).

Jesus was quoting the prophetic and Messianic words of Isaiah 61:1,3:

. . . the LORD hath anointed me to . . . bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. . . . To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they MIGHT be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he MIGHT be glorified.

We talk about revival and renewal and the moving of the Spirit, which God is doing. But, I ask you, how can we ever expect true revival or renewal without the provision and promise of God the Father for the deliverance of His people? As long as the impurity of unclean spirits are present in our worship services and meetings, we cannot have true revival.

God wants the evil out of His church. The Head of the body, the Lord Jesus Christ, is still the same. He will clean out the temple of the Living God.

God’s Standard for His People

God’s Word promised us healing in the atonement, yet God’s people are still sick and dying of the same diseases as the heathen.

God’s Word promised the church of the firstborn deliverance, yet the church is full of depression, addiction, oppression, obsession, divorce, drunkenness, adultery, and fornication, along with lying and false doctrine that tickles the ears of the saints.

Does this mean that Christ is the minister of sin? God forbid; do not even think about it. God’s standard of living for the church is holiness. Yes holiness. Without peace and holiness, “NO MAN shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).

For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God (Ephesians 5:5).

How many unclean and covetous Christians” attend church every week? Many long to be free from their lust and idolatry, but who will deliver them? Will you?

Jesus confronted the “religious” people of His day by boldly declaring:

That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man (Mark 7:14-23).

Out of the heart and out of the man must these unclean spirits be cast out as Jesus did during all of His ministry. You heard me, CAST THEM OUT, just as Jesus did!

Why Are We Sent?

Jesus has given us the same authority He gave to the Apostles and to the Seventy that He sent out. We, also, have been sent by the Lord Jesus Christ. “As thou has sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world” (John 17:18).

Why are we sent? You and I very well know for what purpose, do we not?

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good and healing ALL that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him (Acts 10:38).

If God was with Jesus, who do you think is with us? This truth has been hidden for ages and generations past and is simply this: “Christ IN YOU,” our only “hope of glory” (Col. 1:26, 27).

Let us stop trying to find out who we are “in Christ”, and learn of Jesus, and so find out who He is in us. The very life of Jesus Christ is now in everyone of us. We are not getting better because of what we are doing or not doing but solely as a result of the life of Christ that now indwells every true believer.

Do Christians Need to be Delivered?

As we have seen throughout the Gospels, over 50 percent of Jesus’ ministry was in the area of deliverance from evil spirits. In some cases, deliverance and healing preceded salvation. In other cases deliverance and healing came after salvation, which clearly shows that a believer can be demonized.

Jesus told the blind man to go wash in the pool of Siloam (John 9:6,7). The blind man went to wash in the pool, only by faith, which made him a believer.

The distance from the gate of the Temple, to the pool of Siloam was about 1200 yards, or the length of 12 football fields. He walked to the pool as a blind man, and he washed and and came away seeing by faith in Christ. He received sight, and he saw. Never in the history of the world had a man who was born blind been made to see, and all of the Jews knew that.

Who is like unto our Lord? Hallelujah!

The Lord Himself commissioned the Apostle Paul to minister deliverance in turning the Gentiles from darkness to light:

Delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:17.18)

The Gentiles needed to be delivered from “the power of Satan to God” that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by “faith that is in me,” said Jesus.

I pray that everyone of us now sees that curses and evil spirits must be severed and cast out of every believer, in order to receive the fullness of our relationship with Christ.

Can Christians Come Under Attack?

Christians all over the world are experiencing problems in their lives that they cannot explain. We have found that many of these problems are a direct result of generational curses in our bloodlines. This opens the door for the Devil to afflict us in our bodies and our souls, which includes our minds, wills, and emotions.

Are you, or the person to whom you are ministering, having problems in any of these areas?

Emotional Problems: resentment, hatred, anger, fear, rejection, jealousy, depression, worry, or insecurity.

Mental Problems: procrastination, indecision, doubt, confusion, compromise, loss of memory.

Speech Problems: lying, cursing, blasphemy, criticism, mockery, railing or gossip.

Sex Problems: fantasy sex, masturbation, lust, perversions, homosexuality, lesbianism, fornication, incest, harlotry or child conceived out of wedlock.

Addictions: nicotine, alcohol, drugs, medicines, caffeine ,or food, etc.

Occult Involvement or Religious Error: Witchcraft, seances, spirit guides, horoscopes, false religions, eastern religions, mind sciences, false doctrines.

Physical Infirmities: Many diseases and physical infirmities are due to spirits of infirmity, unclean spirits or evil spirits to torment. Cast them out, and be healed.

Keep in mind that the terms demons, evil spirits, spirits of darkness, unclean spirits, and spirits of infirmity are used interchangeably because they are all the same entity.

A Christian cannot be “possessed” by a demon because their spirit has been sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Humans are three part beings: Body, spirit, and soul.

The Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7).

God created a three part being. He took the dust of the ground and made the body or flesh. He breathed the breath of life into man which is the spirit part. When the spirit came into that body of flesh, it produced a soul. The soul or mind is the thinking and reasoning part of humans. The soul or mind is where the will, intellect, and emotions reside.

Demons attack and attach themselves to the minds of people to control their will and torment their emotions. Can you see why the Bible says that Satan is after the souls (minds) of men?

Satan will try to block a troubled person who is seeking God or get them put away in a mental hospital. Jesus, however, “came to set the captives free” (Luke 4:18-19).

Often demons, will gain control of a person's mind. Without God's intervention, the person cannot distinguish the Holy Spirit from the voice of the flesh or demons. Satan will keep them so tormented with condemning voices that they will give up.

Demons speak lies and manifest hate and seduction through the person. Even a Christian! This often drives away the very people who have come to help them. With this demonic interference, a Christian is in no condition to do God's work! People look at his behavior and say, “If that's a Christian, I don't want to be like him!”

When a deliverance worker confronts a Christian who is not doing what he wants to do and is doing what he doesn’t want to do, you can be sure he or she needs deliverance from evil spirits. The fruit of temperance or self-control is not operating in this believer because of a curse or evil spirits or both.