Demystifying Deliverance Part 3: Workout your own Salvation with fear and trembling!

In part 2 we discussed the background to life’s problems and how as human beings we end up in trouble needing the hand of God to deliver us. We conclude this series by declaring the working out of salvation as the one true journey of deliverance.

Today the world is full of deliverance ministers and programs in which deliverance is now seen as an event of casting out demons. The whole show can be characterised by various manifestations from yelling to vomitting, screaming and rolling on the floor. While there can be nothing wrong with the manifestations as that is characteristic of the demonic, there could be everything wrong with the belief system of the one being delivered and sometimes even the deliverer (deliverance minister, pastor or fellowsaint) themselves. Afterall, the demon has been there all this while and it shouldn’t have to take an special ‘annointed man’ to announce its presence. The disharmony in one’s life is enough to already testify of the presence of contrary spirit(s) or opposing forces.

According to scripture, it takes submitting to the Lord, then resisting the devil, to cause him to flee (James 4:7). One can resist only by going the other way and refusing to partner with. Looking or going the other way is basically submitting totally to God and giving oneself fully to the instruction and guidance of his holiness. Anytime Jesus showed up, devils/demons manifested and ended up out of their hosts. It was always because of the holy word himself manifesting/showing up and speaking thus resisting their presence in a particular person. Today, Jesus is represented by the word and the holy spirit- the presence of which should also cause the exit of the demonic. So the very reason that brings someone to a deliverance stable is enough to prove the presence of a contending force in their life and the point is that manifestation and casting out can be a show that won’t change the life of an individual unless they themselves recognise the presence of ‘Jesus’/the Word, change their ways and submit to God who is present and speaking thereby resisting the devil also presenting himself and speaking.

To add, deliverance has in some cases been transformed into long church services in which secret knowledge a.k.a prophecy is revealed and congregants are ‘supposedly’ set free from whatever is said to hinder them. The problem is that most have a strong leaning towards false doctrines or doctrines of devils and that’s a story for another day. There is no point casting out a demon who has made a home in a disobedient soul who has no intention of being obedient to God. Thats said, Our focus today is on the true meaning of deliverance, the actual walk of salvation that keeps one from dabbling with the devil to their own damnation. Ever wondered what the Apostle Paul meant when he instructed the body of Christ to workout their salvation with fear and trembling? (Phillipians 2.12). It is because mankind is predisposed to having it easy or living in a comfortzone. So one would ask, “the saviour has come and declared victory, why should i suffer.” That it was finished on the cross is wisdom meant to guide the christian in a world where the enemy wages war and takes the offensive. The first day Jesus Christ entered the synagogue, he read from the book of Isaiah, a prophecy about himself;

“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,”

Luke 4:18

Therefore, if deliverance is the work of preaching it means the transformation that happens when one actually learns from the preaching is what deliverance is all about. It is a displacement of the work of evil embedded in a worldly, twisted and anti-Christ mindset. The work of evil is packaged within deceptions that the enemy creates and presents as truths in our innerman. These are intermingled with our experiences and how we interpret them through the lense of deception (devil/lies) and not truth (Word/Jesus Christ). Overtime they become our truths or templates for response to life’s issues. These personal truths are self-designed and self-centred so they actually pull us away from the one truth (Word/Christ) and condition us for the wrath of God. So, the work of the cross is the true deliverance which christians should draw from by working out their salvation, killing the flesh and awakening the spirit in truth. Killing the flesh is essentially stopping all rule of the flesh so that all of life’s matters and decisions are now governed by the spirit through the instruction of the word and the Holy Spirit of God.

The crunch of the matter is that, before one gets born again, there are various teachers and shephereds taking them through the course of life. These range from parents, friends, school, peers, the system to religion, traditions, cultures and even self. Now the coming of Christ was an assignment to end this as he was to become the door and the good shephered of our souls – teaching us all things and showing us the way. This was according to God’s super redemptive plan to reconcile himself with all of humanity. Jesus explains this very well in the book of John, the 10th chapter. He further alludes to the fact that all that came before him (the door) entered not through the door as there was no door prior and therefore are thieves and robbers. The same are those that influence a person’s belief system and mindset before they get born again. Now, life before being born again can be compared to that of a person whose house has been plundered by thieves and robbers. The emotions and feelings consistent with such wickedness are e.g heartache, heartbreak or pain from loss of valuables or loved ones, fear, setbacks, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness etc etc all of which can further lead to feelings of rejection, emptiness, rebellion, loss of hope/faith etc. As it were, most deliverance cases are based on these and the demonic has a way of coming up with stories to explain these so that people are never able to focus on Christ but themselves or those that seem to have the power to deliver them and worsestill, the supposed perpertrators of the evil as defined by the lense of evil itself, the accusing lense that actual fosters negative emotions and that even against the very word and instruction of God (fruits of the spirit-Galatians 5.22)

After being born again, the door (Christ) becomes the filter of our thought system, directing our mindset, feeling, emotion and will power via his Word. This calls for the highest level of self-discipline and more importantly for a renewing of one’s mind to fit in this new doctrine of Christ. One must begin a habit of self introspection in which all of life’s templates (personal truths including copying mechanisms) formed throughout life (by the influence of ‘thieves and robbers’ explained earlier) are replaced by the only true template of the word of God (the door and good shephered). The expectation is that the new doctrine (new piece of cloth) will not tear the old garment (old self) making it worse because the new garment is now being patched on a newborn self as advised. Normarly, the flesh finds it hard to die and make way for the spirit to live so that there can be victory. The christian must therefore first become spirit inorder to accept the word which is spirit in their innerman. This way the flesh will yield. When the spirit is forced on the flesh, the two do not mix and so the flesh struggles and suffers from this new authority it can’t comprehend or understand. This is why you will often hear people saying things got worse when they started praying or going to church. Some usually quit when this happens or seek for deliverance the wrong way. As long as there is no mindset to change to newness in Christ deliverance will never be real.

It is possible to do self -deliverance by continuosly striving for transformation through the renewal of one’s mind ( Romans 12.2). Alternatively, one can get help from fellow brethren in Christ especially after just being born again. Counselling platforms can therefore provide a form of discipleship to bring back people to the ways of God, the love of God and the peace of God. This is expected to lead to Inner Healing as a person chooses life (spirit) more and more over death (body) using their mind, thoughts and intellect (soul) (Romans 12:1-2; Philippians 2:12; 2 Corinthian 10:5). Choosing life brings fruitfulness and peace while continuing in the course of death furthers problems and turmoil.

Quiz time:

Since we said problem means death or perception of, Did Satan have problems in heaven?

Key points in Self-deliverance
1. Self-Development: Aim to gain new knowledge about the work of the cross everyday. Get into the culture of reading about God in his Word. Practice self-introspection at all times reflecting on everything said and done (by self or others) against the mirror of the Word of God. The more of God you know, the more your faith grows, the more you become powerful over sin.

2. Drop the ‘I have arrived mindset’ or pressure to arrive/become: We never stop learning: Growth is continuous, it never stops so we don’t stop learning and we don’t arrive or fully become…we must always push for better. At our best, we have potential to become better still! Humility creates room for growth and victory.

3. Practice the presence of God: Be committed to killing the flesh and awakening the spirit. Let your whole life be governed by the spirit (word) and not the flesh (body). Yield totally to the instruction of God as you Read the word, spend me-time with God, love on him, worship him. This will activate your discernment faculties as you become more acquainted with ways of God. Minister what you have learnt to others, talk about God and be in places and events that preach and teach the word.

4. When you are stuck, pray. When confused, pray. When excited pray. Pray always. Enter with thanksgiving, commit all to God and end with thanksgiving.

Answer to the quiz:

Problem (inferiority) + Pride + Expulsion (Rejection)= Evil Assignment (John 10:10)

I trust this post has helped you. That’s it for today,

Till then

riseUPconqueror


falling is not the problem, failing to riseUP is

1 thought on “Demystifying Deliverance Part 3: Workout your own Salvation with fear and trembling!”

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