How to Receive your Deliverance

FAITH

It is important that the person to be delivered is encouraged to exercise faith in Jesus Christ. Accordingly, they must receive Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and if possible be baptised with the Holy Spirit before deliverance takes place. Again, water baptism is imperative if they have never experienced it. On the other hand if they are not open to the baptism of the Holy Spirit at that stage, they should be counselled concerning this experience. We must exercise the love and wisdom that God gives us in these matters.

Accordingly, they should be encouraged to have an expectant faith in Jesus Christ for their deliverance. As they are encouraged to think of Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of God as their Mediator and Inteitessor before God and their great High Priest, then the Holy Spirit can move freely against the conditions binding them.

REPENTANCE

I believe that repentance is the key to the door in every circumstance. It is the key to the door of salvation, healing, baptism in the Spirit, and deliverance.

We remember that John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance for the remission of sin. Among the first words which Jesus preached were:

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:15)

Yes, repentance is the key that opens all doors, and before we can expect a lasting deliverance, true repentance must take place. Remorse means being sorry for our sins, whereas repentance means turning ABSOLUTELY from our sins. There is a world of difference. Judas showed remorse, but not repentance. Thus in Matthew we read:

"Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that he had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders." (Matt. 27:3)

Judas did not show repentance, he only showed remorse. Repentance means an absolute turning around from everything that is dark in our lives to the light of Jesus Christ. Jesus expressed it beautifully when He spoke to Paul on the Damascus Road:

"I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, "to open theireyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me." (Acts 26:17,18)

A DECISION

Thus true repentance is having our spiritual eyes opened and turning from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. But this is a DECISION on our part, an act of our will, and herein lies the key to our salvation and deliverance.

"Repent was the word spoken by Jesus at the beginning of his earthly ministry and we find that when He appeared to John on the isle of Patmos, towards the end of John's life and spoke of the seven churches, in the case of five of them, he stated the need for them to repent. Thus, repentance is at the beginning and at the end of the New Testament and the key to our understanding of the New Testament, rests upon repentance.

The disciples went out and preached that people should repent, and as a result they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them:

"So they went out and preached that people should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them." (Mark 6: 12, 13)

PRODIGAL SON

Again, we remember the parable of the prodigal son who left home. When he was in the midst of all his squalor feeding the pigs and would gladly have eaten the same food as the pigs, he came to his senses and made a DECISION TO GO BACK TO HIS FATHER He said:

"I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, "and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.' "And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him." (Luke 15:18-20)

Here we see him making a decision and carrying it out. This is true repentance . . . an act of our own will.

NEED FOR TRUE REPENTANCE

I am convinced, from many years of experience in the deliverance ministry, that unless there is true repentance, there will be no lasting deliverance. There must be an ABSOLUTE turning from sin and a DECISION of our will to stay away from sin. As we are told in Romans Chapter 6, our old man was crucified with Jesus so that the body of sin might be done away with and we should no longer be slaves of sin.

"Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. "And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace." (Romans 6:11-14)

Here sin is spoken of as something we can obey or turn from. I believe from my personal experience that behind every sin there is a spirit from Satan, and if we embark upon the path of sin, then the demon powers begin to descend upon us and enter into our bodies.

HOLINESS

We are called to holiness, and this is the best way both of receiving and retaining our deliverance. However, as a result of prolonged exposure to sin on our part, or that of our parents, many of us need deliverance and that is why the deliverance ministry is for the body of Christ.

Specific ways in which we can repent are as follows:- We must humble ourselves. As the scripture said, "Except ye be converted and become as a little child, ye shall not enter the kingdom of God."

We must become as a little child to be converted, that is we must put aside all our natural understanding and come to Jesus in true humility accepting Him as our Saviour and making Him Lord of our life.

In the same way, in order to receive Jesus as Baptises in the Holy Spirit, we again must humble ourselves, turning from all sin and letting Him carry out this mighty ministry for us.

The whole of Jesus' ministry talked of humility. We recall that Satan fell through pride in the first place and, in my experience, there are four downward steps:-

Pride Rebellion Deception Perversion of the flesh and of the spirit.

Once we allow pride to enter, then rebellion soon follows. We will not listen to anybody or be corrected by anybody. We then allow the spirit of deception in and finally we begin to allow perversion of the flesh and of the spirit. Perversion of the spirit is, of course, occultic activity and following other spirits, while perversion of the flesh can take the form of sexual immorality.

WE MUST CONFESS OUR SINS

Confession of sin is part of repentance and a wonderful way in which we can be delivered and healed. "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. . ." (James 5:16)

Confession is part of healing and deliverance. I well recall a young lady with whom we prayed during a number of years for deliverance. The demons continued to manifest and even though many came out we could not get the chief demon to go. Usually we find that there is a principal demon and many other demons are associated with him. He seems to have control over them, and until he is ousted or expelled, he continues to attract other demons back even though many may have been cast out. In this particular case, we seemed to be able to cast out many demons but still the young lady was not released. Finally, she made a confession which she had failed to do before. This happened to be a particularly filthy thing relating to witchcraft which happened before she became a Christian, and as she made the confession the demon left her. It no longer had any seat of authority in her.

I have been at many meetings where I have encouraged the sick and others to confess their sins to elders or other persons who were present. The results have often been dramatic as immediate healings have taken place. The power of God can fall in such instances and God is able to complete His perfect work of deliverance and healing.

HONESTY

We must be absolutely honest in our dealings with God and with one another. Our hearts must be opened to the light of God's Word. We must be honest with one another. Failure to be honest provides a further seat for Satan to sit upon with his demon power and accordingly people are not released, unless there is total honesty on their part. In cases where there has been past sin, such as adultery, I never advocate that the sinning partner goes and tells the other party to the marriage. I do not believe we are called upon to do that, but we should certainly confess that sin to another person who can be relied upon or to God Himself. The person hearing the confession must, of course, never repeat what he has heard and should forget it immediately.

We remember that there is one Mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus, and as we confess our sins and confess His name, then He is able to intercede on our behalf before the Throne of Grace. We must be transparent if we are to receive true healing and deliverance.

FORGIVENESS

This is a cardinal part of repentance. Failure to forgive is one of the principal reasons why people are not released from demon power. We cannot read Matthew 18 without realising the sovereignty of God and the need for true forgiveness. As we have remarked earlier, the only part of the Lord's Prayer which Jesus repeated was the part dealing with forgiveness. Similarly, in Matthew 18:34-35, we have the promise of God through Jesus to deliver us to the torturers (demons) if we do not, from our heart, forgive one another our trespasses.

If it was good enough for Jesus to die on the cross for each one of us and forgive us while we were still sinners, then we have no right whatsoever to have an unforgiving attitude towards others. Many times I have seen tremendous deliverance as a result of true forgiveness. I recall, on one occasion at a convention in Sydney, Australia, when a girl came forward with a crippling condition in her right arm. The Holy Spirit indicated by the word of knowledge that this girl had failed to forgive her sister. I asked the girl to do so and asked her to name her sister expressly as she forgave her. After some hesitation, the girl agreed to do so, and spoke the name of her sister, forgiving her as she did so. I asked her to say the words, "In the name of Jesus I forgive my sister Anne." She was able to say it approximately ten times and then suddenly the demon screamed out of her, "I won't, I won't, I won't forgive my sister Anne!" Once the demon had manifested it was comparatively easy to deal with it, but it was an indication of how deep demons will hide in these circumstances.

In mass meetings I often encourage people to stand and name a particular person whom they need to forgive. I usually lead them in the prayer, such as, "In the name of Jesus I forgive. . ." As many names are released I have often seen dramatic healings. I recall in one Anglican church at an 8 a.m. service, I asked the congregation to do this. One or two of them walked out because they felt it was very wrong. I found that the community was a close country community with very harsh feelings working within it. However, one man who did so was released from arthritis which had bound him for over twenty years. As he forgave his brother, the spirit left him. He came along to a meeting 5 years later and testified of his absolute and complete healing. He no longer needed to take 5 pills a day.

CALL UPON THE NAME OF JESUS

The scriptures are specific: "And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Acts 2:21) The word "saved" also means "delivered". If we call on Jesus to help us in such circumstances and call on Him from our heart, He always responds by giving us faith for deliverance.

EXERCISING OUR WILL

In all of the foregoing it can be clearly seen that there is an active ingredient of our will involved. One of the great keys to deliverance through real repentance is the fact that we use our will. Many times as we are ministering deliverance, demons try to overcome the person and fill them with fear, but I always encourage people to exercise their own will. If the demon is shouting or screaming through them, I command the demon to be quiet; I speak to the person concerned and tell him to exercise his will. I also point out that "greater is He in them than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4). We therefore need to understand clearly that this is truth and as this sinks into our spirit we realise that we really are overcomers in the name of Jesus. The person seeking deliverance must exercise his or her will in such circumstances.

In all of the foregoing instances I am speaking of the situation where the person concerned is in possession of their faculties. We, of course, read in the scriptures of the demoniac boy, but in his case the father exercised faith.

If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, 'Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"' (Mark 9:23,24)

There are, of course, situations where a person ministering, operating in the power of the Holy Spirit, particularly in the healing ministry, commands the demon to depart. It may be a demon of deafness or dumbness or blindness or infirmity.

If the person to whom you are ministering is truly repentant then it is much easier for the demon to go, but I have seen in certain circumstances the sovereign act of God when we have taken total authority to minister in the name of Jesus and the demon has gone, even though the person themselves appears to have done nothing. However, from experience, I would still believe that if that person is going to retain their deliverance there must be a true repentance with Jesus as Saviour and infilling of the Holy Spirit.

CONVERTED JEW

I recall a converted Jew coming to me on one occasion because he seemed to be so bound with anger, fear and other forces. He had received Jesus as Saviour many years earlier and had undergone the experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. However, he was still bound by these forces of fear and anger so badly that, in fact, his wife was thinking of leaving him. It appeared that he had undergone considerable torture and abuse in a Nazi labour camp during the war years and had never been able to overcome memories of this or to forgive his captors.

I counselled him in the area of forgiveness and suggested that he went away for one week and prayed and fasted. He returned a week later, a totally changed man. He had truly sought the Lord and had researched in a bible concordance every mention of the words "forgiveness" and "repentance". He had studied every aspect from the scriptures and in the meantime had fasted. Every day for up to two hours, God brought before him as in a colour film, pictures of every person by whom he had been persecuted since the age of twelve. They showed up vividly and he sat and watched each situation as God brought it back. Jesus spoke to him concerning each situation, and as he studied the scripture carefully every day he was able to come to true repentance and forgiveness for each of those persons.

By the time he saw me a week later he was totally transformed and the completion of his deliverance was only a formality. He went away rejoicing, full of the joy of the Lord and a totally new creature in Jesus Christ. As a I prayed a simple prayer with him, the demon of hate finally left, thus he was totally released and went on his way. If anything convinced me about the ease of deliverance when there is true repentance, that particular incident certainly did.

MOLESTING OF GIRLS

Many girls have been molested by their father during their childhood and teens and great bitterness and resentment results. Spirits of frigidity, fear and other things take hold because of these incidents. Similarly, following marriage break-ups, children often have a tremendous sense of rejection.

I recall an incident when a woman came to me suffering from a major physical ailment and the Holy Spirit indicated that this problem related to her relationship with her grandfather. She was puzzled for a moment and then suddenly the memory flooded back to her because I mentioned the age of eight years. She recalled that when she was eight her grandfather had caused her to touch him physically on his private parts and her abhorrence of this sin was so great that it never left her mind. As she forgave her grandfather, the demon of resentment and bitterness left her and she walked away totally healed because that spirit of bitterness and resentment went at the same time with the physical infirmity.

FORGIVING A FATHER

When we were ministering near Seattle recently, at a Men's Advance, I taught in the area of deliverance. After the session, I heard a great noise coming from an adjacent room. I went in there to find five men trying to hold down a very tall young man who was extremely violent and who was, in fact, trying to pull out the windows of the building. I told the men to release this young man and as I took authority in the name of Jesus, the Holy Spirit told me to ask the young man about his father. Immediately, all the contortions and noise stopped and this twenty four year old man broke down and wept like a little child.

It appeared that his father had deserted his family when he was six, and as a result, tremendous rejection and fear had entered the young boy who had grown into a man with these deep problems. He had sold his soul to Satan, hence the violent demonic powers which were operating through him.

As he began to forgive his father, the demons manifested violently. He was truly repentant and the demon of hate left him with a loud roar. He was immediately transformed as a person and when I last heard of him he was continuing strongly with the Lord, and in fact was involved in the deliverance ministry himself.

It seems to be one of the features of the deliverance ministry that where people have received deliverance, they themselves often operate in this ministry at a later date, because they are aware of the forces which have left them and have a holy hatred towards these forces.