Transcript: Deliverance Ministry

Video Transcript: Deliverance Ministry (David Feddes)

If you take the Bible seriously, you take demons seriously. And if you take demons seriously, you need to know how to drive them out and resist their attacks you need a biblical understanding of deliverance ministry. If you're a Christian leader, you will meet people who need deliverance ministry, whose lives have an enormous influence from a demon and whom you need to bring the authority of Jesus to bear against the activity of the demon in their life. deliverance ministry is urgently needed in some situations. But some ideas about deliverance ministry stray far from the Bible, and some ways of practicing deliverance ministry can do dreadful damage. recognizing this a group of pastors and professors got together to discuss spiritual warfare and deliverance ministries. Participants in this group came from various church backgrounds, Charismatic and Pentecostal, as well as historical Evangelicals, such as Baptist and Reformed. They have different opinions about some things. But together they found agreement in a great many areas about deliverance ministry. 

Dr. Gerry Breshears, a professor at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, put their consensus statement into writing and what I'd like to do is to read through that statement, and as we go along, I'll offer some comments of my own. The first thing that this group stated is that God reigns supreme over the whole universe, governing it to his ultimate glory. God decisively defeated the powers of darkness disarming and triumphing over them at the cross. God is ultimately in charge of all affairs of his universe, and we are not to fear a satanic victory. When we speak of deliverance ministry, we do so based on the fact that God has already won. And we don't think of this as a battle between equals, God on one side and Satan on the other side as a nearly equal power. God is supreme, and God is triumphant. Demons are real, Satan and demons are frighteningly real. They are personal, evil, supernatural spirits. These fallen angels are at constant warfare against the cause of Christ and His church. They are subtle, crafty, malicious and unrelenting in their attacks. One cannot reduce the demonic in Scripture to primitive explanations of psychosis. 

There may be some who tried to just psychologize everything and say that there are no mental malevolent personal spirits that cause trouble in people's lives. But that is not biblical demons are frighteningly real and we must be able to face that reality and address it. How do we counter demonic power? Well, as the prince of this world, Satan exerts his power against believers and against unbelievers. Jesus Christ advances his kingdom against that of Satan, through a combination of prayer, evangelism, and edification. Believers sharing his victory and authority over demons, in the case of demonized persons exorcism is one means of accomplishing this kingdom purpose. So as we think of deliverance ministries, Jesus Kingdom advances primarily by what we might call sort of ordinary things, prayer, evangelism, spreading the gospel and building up believers. And this is vital, we shouldn't just try to get fancy and think there's always going to be a sensational exorcism, wherever the kingdom of God advances. But sometimes exorcism is one way of driving back demons and advancing the kingdom of Christ. 

In spiritual warfare, believers seek first to redeem unsaved persons from the realm of Satan, by proclamation of the gospel. Not everybody is possessed by a demon or has a demon living in them, but they're still in the realm of Satan, and under his domination, if they have not come to know Jesus Christ, and so a big part of spiritual warfare is simply calling unsaved persons through the proclamation of the gospel. And then secondly, spiritual warfare is to resist demonic assault against ourselves in the church by submitting to God, standing firm in the faith, and putting on the armor of God. That is prayerfully practicing the essential disciplines of spiritual growth within a local body of believers. So belonging to a local church, daily praying, reading the Word of God, occasionally fasting, having time of silence and solitude and spending time with the Lord and the disciplines of evangelism and storage, if these are all methods of spiritual warfare and spiritual growth, because the healthier you are in Jesus, the less able the demons are to succeed in assaulting you. Now, demons can't possess believers.

At conversion, God redeems people, transferring them out of Satan's realm, the dominion of darkness, into Christ's realm, the kingdom of the Beloved Son of God, at the time of conversion, they become children of God, fully justified, fully forgiven, sharing the inheritance from Christ. Therefore, believers in Jesus Christ are never possessed by demons. That is, they are never the property of Satan and his minions, and they are never totally controlled by an evil spirit. If you have come to Jesus Christ and truly put your faith in Him, then you are never owned by the devil again, and he never has total control of you. And so in that sense, demons can't be said to possess someone who is a follower of Jesus Christ. However, demons can assault believers. Some people say that believers are immune to demonic assault. The examples of Jesus and Paul, as well as such specific statements as First Peter five, verse eight, the devil goes around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And these things prove that it's a fatally dangerous lie to think that believers are just bulletproof and that the devil doesn't even come after them anymore and that his demons never attack people who belong to Jesus that's just living in La La Land, the Bible constantly warns believers to be aware of demonic powers and their influences and of their strategies. Now, believers are to be aware of Satan and his schemes so that we can stand against them. 

However, we must be cautious that we not give Satan undue attention by excessive study of him or his schemes. This can lead to a fascination or fearfulness or overestimation of Satan's power, or even a form of satanic worship, you can get so wrapped up in to ideas about spiritual warfare and figuring out everything about demons, that you're not paying much attention to God anymore. And so, sometimes it's exciting and kind of sensational to be thinking about what the demons might be up too. But that can be very unhealthy. We need to give our primary attention to God and pay attention to Satan and his demons only as necessary to deal with them and fend them off. We acknowledge Satan's existence, we study, think and speak of him but only as pastorally necessary, and always to renounce and resist rather than respect him. Believers focus should be on Christ's power, and Christ's provision, to resist evil forces giving all glory to God alone. So fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith, as Hebrews 12 says, always stay focused on Jesus, and then pay attention to the demons only as necessary to call Christ's power and authority against them. 

Believers may be tempted, deceived, accused by Satan and may yield to these attacks, though they do not have to. If they do not resist Satan, as the scripture says, they may become entangled in the behavior so deeply that they cannot escape it without special help from other believers. Scripture indicates that even believers can fall into a trap of Satan and fall into a pattern of behavior, they just can't get out of it anymore without some special help. A person whether a believer or a non believer could be dominated by a demon in a way akin to a wife being dominated by an abusive husband. It could be to the point of alteration of their personality and loss of a sense of personal control. However, such a person if a believer will never be abandoned by the Holy Spirit or left to merely human resources, as is the case of an unbeliever. So this is a very serious point, and it might be disputed by some believers. But this group is saying that there are persons even if they're believers, who can still fall under the domination of a demon just as a Christian wife might fall under the domination of a cruel abusive husband to the point where it twists or judgment and makes her lose a sense of her own value and worth out that could happen in relation to a human. 

Then they're saying that sometimes demons could do that to somebody even though they can't totally possess or control them because they are believers. And this is based in part on experience of having dealt with people who seem to all indications to have been a genuine Christian, and still are, and yet have such a powerful tug or twisting, or torment from a demonic force. And so this is just taking very seriously the full extent of how a demon might still attack and harm and twist you without saying that that demon has every right to you or that that God has completely abandoned you. Now, believers are commanded to avoid every form of contact with demonic practices, including astrology, divination, new age, meditation and mantras, demonic movies and books, satanic music, magic, seances, seeking after the spirits of the dead, wee-gee boards, etc. The Bible again and again warns against the occult, against trying to be in contact with the spirits and it is not a game, don't play with the fires of hell. Don't play with the powers of demons. That's basically an important warning that the group is issuing that all Christians ought to be able to agree on and should take very much to heart. Demons are properly expelled, exorcised, kicked out only by the power of God, based on the triumph of Jesus Christ, through the potency of the Holy Spirit. 

So Father, Son, and Spirit, do the exorcism, no magic, or divination or bargaining or ritual, no matter how effective it may appear to be, can replace reliance on the name of Jesus Christ, and the power of his work at Calvary, the use of sacred objects, holy water, or crosses, runs the risk of being viewed as Christian magic. So there might be some people say, Well, I'm kind of an expert on kicking out demons on exorcisms. And I always sprinkle some water here, or I always hold up a cross and that really scares the demons. What's being said here is, it's God, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the authority of Jesus name, don't get into conversations are making bargains with demons. And don't try to use objects as though they have some sort of magical power. To drive out demon powers. Demons run from only one thing, the power and authority of Jesus Christ, that God the Father is designated and that the Holy Spirit unleashes, and if you want to be involved in effective deliverance ministry, it has to be Christ centered, not some sort of Christian magic. Prayer is not something that you address to demons. Some say that a believer can't be delivered of a specific sin or obsession from a demonic source, except by a deliverance prayer rebuking the demons. 

So as part of your prayer, you start talking to the demon and rebuking it. Such warfare prayer directed towards Satan and the demons has no precedent in Scripture. You can't find anything like that in the Bible. And it's contrary to the nature of prayer. As family fellowship with God, your prayer time is time with God. You're talking to God, you're not talking to demons, when you're talking to God and keep your prayer directed that way at the Lord God. Rebukes are directed to Satan and demons as part of deliverance. So you can talk, in a sense to Satan and the demons very briefly, it's not prayer, it's a rebuke. They're not prayers, prayer to God for power to resist temptation for wisdom and strength to stand firm, in face of Satan's attacks is a vital part of warfare against the world, and the flesh and the devil. So prayer is very much important in spiritual warfare and in deliverance ministry, but there's a difference between praying to God and rebuking a demon and don't mix the two up. Nowhere Does the Bible command or describe exorcism or casting out of a demon as a solution for such sins of the flesh as anger, bitterness, envy or loss. So just because you've got a chronic sin problem, and evil desires, does not mean that you've got to have a demon kicked out and then all of a sudden, you'll be rid of those sins. Hey, you've got enough sin on your own without demonic help, deliverance is not a shortcut to spiritual or personal maturity. 

You've got to grow up in the Lord and you don't go instantly from being a no nothing baby who is helpless under the power of Satan to instantly being strong in the Lord and in His might. Just by having a demon kicked out. We all have to grow up in the Lord and while demons may tempt a believer to commit such sins as Satan did with Jesus God will not allow us to be tempted above what we are able to bear and overcome. And so we're to take responsibility for sin in our lives, and not claim that it's all the devil's fault. And if we just kick out this or that demon, our sin problem is going to be taken care of. Sometimes a demon does need to be driven away. But even when that's done, we've still got our own habits, our own sin nature, to fight against and to overcome. Moral failure is ultimately the choice and responsibility of humans, rather than of Satan. Giving a demon credit for causing his sin may lead to an erroneous sense of helplessness or defeat. No believer can correctly say, the devil made me do it. There's an old story, I heard it from James Boyce and one of his books where he's telling about a little girl and Marianne is the little girl who's being rebuked by her mother because Marianne yanked her brother's hair and kicked him in the shins. 

And the mother said, how could you let Satan lead you to kick your brother's shins and pull his hair? And Marianne replied, well mommy, maybe pulling his hair was an idea from the devil, but kicking his shins was my idea. Well, that's actually pretty decent theology, that we do have sins of our own. But Satan may cause us or tempt us. But at the end of the day, a lot of our sins are our own fault, and certainly our own idea and we need to take responsibility for sin when Eve said, oh, the serpent tempted me. Did that mean Eve wasn't responsible anymore? No. She was responsible for listening to the serpent the devil rather than to God. And we to if we listen to a demon, it's not because we have to. It's because we chose to, and we are responsible. Repeated demonic possession may be possible, but many so called repossessions are really the re-occurrence of a sin of the flesh. So there may be a person where an exorcism occurred where demons were sent packing were expelled in the authority of Jesus Christ, and then later, they slip into a characteristic sin that they had been committing. Is that because the demon took over their life again? Well, it's possible but not likely, it's more likely that they're simply slipping into old wicked habits, so we can consider the possibility that they fell back under the domination and influence of demonic power. 

But the more likely explanation in most cases is that they're just letting sin get back into their life and letting it become a habit again. Contemporary deliverance procedures usually involve finding the name of the demon, what sin allowed that demon to invade the demonic hierarchies involved where it ranks among the demons and then rebuking it before casting it out. So this is quite common among a lot of deliverance ministries. Such procedures contain many elements that are not described in scriptural exorcisms, the Bible doesn't tell us to do it that way. And it doesn't give much in the line of examples of doing it that way. Any practice or technique of spiritual warfare that has no scriptural warrant is always suspect. Other elements appear only once in Scripture, they're not established as normal practices. In exorcism for instance, Jesus, on one occasion asked the name of a demon. And so modern deliverance ministry say you must ask the name of a demon and find it out and find out what happened and so on before you can expel it. That's just not so. At least not according to the Bible. In the Bible, demonisation involved, easily recognizable phenomena, which were supernatural and evil in both source and appearance was pretty obvious. 

When somebody was falling down, frothing at the mouth, screaming out blasphemies yelling at Jesus when he was in Jesus presence these things nobody went around saying, boy, I wonder if there might possibly be demonic influence where there seemed to be a person who had a demon people knew it, there was no need for extended or mysterious discovery procedures to uncover hidden demons. Contemporary deliverance methods, which rely heavily on such techniques differ significantly. From biblical patterns. It can be more common today now that if someone has any kind of problem in their life, if the person dealing with them is is an expert on deliverance ministry at least self styled, they'll dig and dig and dig till they find out what demon is causing the problem. This was not the case in the Bible. In the Bible, when someone was afflicted by a demon quite specifically, it was pretty obvious. biblical exorcisms delivered unbelievers completely from the demons that had possessed them, their former habitation and dominion was thereby rendered open to the powerful indwelling of the Holy Spirit, through the new converts faith in Jesus Christ. And so you didn't have partial deliverance or deliverances, for 10 minutes, and then the demon is back causing even bigger trouble. 

True biblical exorcism meant that the demon was kicked out, and that the Holy Spirit and the power of God moved in. And in deliverance ministry today, that's what we should expect that in the authority of Jesus, any demon who had an influence in someone's life, is going to be expelled completely. And we should assure the people to whom we're ministering of this, I remember a guy who talked to me about needing a job, and he prayed and prayed to God, and he didn't get the job. And he prayed for months on end. Finally, he thought, I'll try something different. He prayed to the devil, and he had a job in less than a week. You can imagine a while later what that was doing to him. And he was just tormented by the thought that he would belong to the devil forever, and that there was no hope for him. And so I could just tell him while in the authority of Jesus, you need to repent of that, and we need to rebuke any demonic influence on your life. And I didn't tell him It might work or there's a smidge of a chance, he had to know that when you're delivered, you're totally delivered from the domination of demonic powers, deliverance is total. 

While demons are one possible cause of sickness as the book of Job indicates, and also, where in the New Testament Jesus said that a bent over women had that affliction because it came from the devil. It's possible that demons are one cause of sickness, it's not generally caused by demonic attack. Most time we get sick simply because of the weakness to which human nature is vulnerable because we had fallen as a race into sin. And so we're subject to sickness and death. And we shouldn't expect to every sickness has a demon connected with it, oh, I cast you out demon of the common cold. There are people who come very close to saying that sort of thing. And that's not biblical. Jesus clearly distinguished between the healings of sickness and the casting out of demons. When sickness is caused by wilful sin or natural causes, then attempting to cast out demons will not bring a cure, if someone has cancer, because they smoked for 30 years, or they have cancer just because of natural causes that had nothing to do with their own actions. But it's just one of those things that happens to a person living in a broken indicating world, then don't try to exercise the demons to get rid of the cancer. It's very devastating to a sick person, if you immediately trance translate that sickness into the notion that they're being dominated by a demon. 

You can't kick out the demon of cancer or the common cold, or of any other sickness, unless it's very clear and made clear by God, that a particular sickness is attributable to the direct action of a demon, but that's quite rare. And we should more often expect that sickness is sickness, and demon possession or demon domination is something quite different. Warfare prayer can degenerate into a magical formula where specific phrases such as binding Satan, or placing a hedge of thorns or by the blood of Jesus, are deemed necessary to take on and effectiveness by the use of the words themselves. I'm not making light of those words or trying to mock them. There are some people who seem to think that unless you say it in exactly a certain way, with just the right words chosen, the demons have no obligation to flee. The power of the prayer is in the truth of the concept of reality of Jesus of his authority of his triumph on the cross of his victory over the demons. The power of the prayer is in the truth of the concept, rather than in the phrases spoken. You say, oh, I mispronounced that word. Or I forgot to say that phrase that does not at all, have any effect on whether an exorcism can be effective. It's a mistake to believe that apart from specifically worded prayers to bind Satan from tempting or attacking persons are even entering a room believers are unprotected and helpless. Say oh, no, I forgot to pray that all the demons be kicked out of the room therefore I'm I was just subject to the demons, not so. As long as you're praying for God's protection, even if you've got to pray against the demons, specifically God is your help. And you're protected. 

We should not get into the habit of thinking that we've got to say just the right words at all times, or everything is lost. A prayer binding Satan is no more effective are necessary, then prayer to God for His power and protection. Another mistake is to assume that believers become virtually divine fighting spiritual battles by the power of prayer generates with little need for God's involvement. Oh, I'm a prayer warrior. I'm saying the right words. And after a while you it's so much about me that it's not God anymore. The power of prayer comes from strength and relationship with God and cleansing and sensitivity to Godliness that it brings if you want to be strong against Satan. Don't try to be Mr. Macho warrior against the demons. First of all, become a friend of God, know him well live in his cleansing and with sensitivity to his leading and an awful lot of demons are going to be mighty scared to you. It is neither biblical nor wise for ministers of deliverance to invite a demon into themselves in order to get it out of a demonized person. The rationale for this practice is that the trauma of exorcism will be eased because transferring a demon into another body is less difficult than casting it out into body less existence. 

Nowhere is there a warranted scripture for wilfully inviting demons to enter a person, Jesus allowing the demons in the gathering demoniac to go into pigs, in no way validates the practice of transferring demons into people. Sometimes people may be watching movies too much in reading the Bible and they see in a movie that some priest or somebody invites a demon out of the afflicted person into themselves what lunacy never invite a demon into your own life. Just call on the authority of Jesus to kick the demon out of somebody else's life. And Jesus will do that. You do not need to offer the demon a different home inside of you that is ridiculous and foolish and devastating. There is no scriptural warrant for coughing up or choking out or spitting out demons as a pattern for exorcism. Although there may be some physical reaction to deliverance. We know from the Bible, that sometimes people would just collapse as though dead after they were delivered from the demon and then Jesus would lift them up again. But again, some deliverance ministries start speaking of oh, you've got to choke or cough. And you've got to encourage that in somebody, hey, demons are spirits not spit, and they are expelled by spiritual power from God and not by any physical act of spitting out or vomiting, or whatever else if there is some sort of physical reaction from time to time, don't make it a vital part of the deliverance itself or tell people that that's a big part of how you kick out demons. 

Scripture is the only reliable source of information about demons. The contemporary demonologies, including such matters as demonic hierarchies, motives and methods of demons are largely composed from information gathered from the demons themselves. people involved in deliverance ministries, who got a wrong idea of spiritual warfare would ask demons about themselves for their names, what they were doing and so on. But how can you trust information from demons, Satan and his demons are liars by nature, at best information from them will be tainted by untruth and evil motive, or half truths in a misleading way. Believing demons reports will often bring great harm to the cause of Christ. Therefore, information gained from demons should not be used for any purpose. We know for the Bible, there were a few times where demons spoke and they told the truth. The demons would say of Jesus, we know who you are the Holy One of God. And Jesus would tell them to shut up and kick them out. He didn't say, well, thanks for the advertisement. If you read Acts 16, the apostle Paul has a girl with a spirit who's following around and saying these men are telling you the way to be saved. In a sense, it was a true fact. That's exactly what Paul was doing. 

But Paul didn't want demon advertisements for him. And Paul rebuked the demon and kicked it out of the girl and set her free from that demon now, if even Jesus and Paul would not let the demons spread information that was accurate. Why would anybody think oh, we should do interviews with demon possessed people and ask the demons themselves for information and command them to tell us what the demons are up to. The demons are going to lie. And even if they tell the truth, you really couldn't trust what they're using the truth for and so get whatever information you have about demons from the Bible only, never from the person or from the demon who is claiming to indwell a person. And don't let get your information on deliverance ministry from books that say, here's what I learned from my various encounters with demons, and what I told them to tell me about them, their names, their hierarchies. And so on those books, you might as well throw them on a fire. If they're claiming to know about demons, by their encounters with demons, and by what demons have told them, you've got to stick with the Bible, or you're going to be misled by those liars. Under no circumstances should Christians carry on conversations or arguments with demons. 

Such contact is prohibited in Scripture, you do not try to contact spirits. And it's patently unwise, since it increases the opportunity for demons to counter adapt, the only attention demons should receive is that of rejecting, refusing or resisting them. The brief interchange and Mark five, where Jesus had a brief exchange with demons is quite different than contemporary practices involving extensive fact finding, don't do an interrogation of a demon, don't do an interview with a demon, don't be bait with a demon, don't have a conversation with a demon. That's not what you do with demons, you kick them out, and you leave them alone. There is spiritual warfare on the cosmic level between holy angels and demonic spirits. Daniel ten speaks of the Prince of Persia, who has a demonic spirit influencing the affairs of the Persian Empire, and the prince of Greece, who is a demonic spirit influencing the affairs of Alexander the Great and the spread of the Greek Empire. And so there are demons who work at a cosmic level and in the affairs of nations. And this is a fact revealed by the Bible. However, the Bible neither describes nor mandates believers involvement in that battle. 

We know that stuff's going on. But we're not the ones who have to figure it out. discerning the names, assignments, hierarchies of the spirits, and praying against them, has no scriptural warrant, we're commanded to deal with the demonic at the personal level, and we better let God and the angels worry about what's going on behind the scenes at the cosmic level, we can be aware that such things are going on. And when we see terrible things done by certain agents, we can say, boy, that seems to have a demonic influence behind it. But to try to figure it all out and say that we know what's going on in the demon realm behind the scenes is more than we're called to do, we need to deal with demonic power, as the demons tempt us in our own lives, and we sometimes may need to expel them from the life of another person. Demons are not inherited. Demons often work effectively within ungodly families who have a wicked influence on their offspring. But there's no scriptural warrant for so called ancestral or generational bondage that is inheriting personal demons from ancestors apart from personal involvement by the child. So if your father was afflicted by a demon, that does not mean you automatically inherit that same demon passages such as Exodus 20, verses four and five, which speaks of the sin of the father's being visited upon the children and punished in the children of the third and fourth generation. 

It's speaking of the consequences of sin being visited to the third and fourth generation, it's not saying the third and fourth generation are inheriting the demons of the preceding generations. And it's a big jump in logic and a big jump away from scripture to speak of generational bondage is something that's automatic. Sure, your grandparents, your parents, your family has an influence and it may be a very negative one. And if they subjected you to demonic rights, there may be demonic things that need to be dealt with. But you shouldn't scrounge around in your passing. Well, I think this problem is just a generational bondage where a demonic power was handed down to me. There's not a scriptural precedent for speaking of it that way. Now, the consequences of sin may be the natural results of a sinful lifestyle, such as babies born with AIDS again, parents sins do have an impact on their children. Some things may be the judgment of God, but it falls on relatively innocent persons, such as the babies who starved in the siege of Jerusalem. They weren't the main sinners, and yet they suffered the consequences of their parents wickedness, children raised in an occultic environment will normally come into contact with the demonic and may be influenced toward personal demonic involvement as a result of their environment. So there may well be demonic influences that have to be contended with. But don't just assume that it's something automatically inherited from parents. 

It's as a result of their personally being caught up in that atmosphere. And in that environment. However, the believer, even if you have someone who grew up in that kind of environment and with those influences, if that person puts their faith in Jesus Christ, the believer is delivered from all demonic authority by the triumph of Christ. The protecting and empowering work of the Spirit is sufficient for all believers, no matter what their family background, when a person comes to Christ comes from darkness to light from the power of Satan to the power of God, they do not need to go back and say, well, did Grandpa, maybe have a demon that I inherited and don't know about, I've still got to discover and get rid of him. No, when you accept Christ, and renounce the powers of evil, you're fine and don't spend a lot of time worrying about generational demons. 

And the final thing, spiritual warfare should always glorify God, rather than the human minister, the where the books where this guy has the inside track on knowing all about demons, and oh, he's done so much to kick out demons. And isn't he smart? And isn't he powerful? be very cautious about that. Because a true warrior for God gives glory to God and works in the power of God, and does it always by the word of God? 

Well, these are some of the cautions, some of the boundaries, some of the guidelines for deliverance ministry, we must take seriously the attacks and activities of demons, we must be aware of the possibility that even in Western cultures, and certainly in other cultures of the world, where there's been a lot of worship and, and messing around with spirits that we're going to face people where a demon is in them or is dominating or ruining their life and we need to be able to deal with that. And at the same time having said all that, we shouldn't be sensationalist, who are looking for demon under every bush, are obsessed by demonic activity. We must live in the power of God and give all glory to God.