When someone (in church) needs deliverance

Dear friends

Have you ever seen a demon manifesting in a person, coming out of it’s hidden place within the person?
Like the demoniac in the bible or the man in the synagogue with the unclean spirit…(notice the man was IN the church!!!)
I think we have all seen it in the bible, the demoniac, Judas – what about the Pharisees, what about the crowd when they chanted “crucify him”???

Perhaps some of us have seen it in a church setting when people start hissing or making snake movements or when a male voice would come out of a woman saying that they are going to kill her…?
Perhaps you have not seen it in real life, only in movies?

Well, when you see it this clearly, it is clear that this person needs deliverance, but the more you will read on and the more we will talk about it and the more you will think about it, the more you might find that we have all seen it before, that we all have seen someone who needs deliverance – even ourselves perhaps.

I will give an example of a man who comes home and is stressed from his job.
The situation in his work place has been ongoing and he doesn’t really know what to do about it.
He is overworked and frustrated.
When he comes home, his wife and his children are greeting him eagerly normally and he has been able to find comfort in spending time with his family. And although it has become more difficult for him to keep his calm when his children are making so much noise and running around, he has mostly been able to enjoy their liveliness.
Then one day, he has been a specifically bad day at work, on his way home, he has been caught up in traffic and the way home took him much longer than usual and then he came home and his children were running around, screaming and for some reason, his wife had not been able to get dinner ready by the time he arrived there, which frustrated him even more – and so this led to him “blowing a fuze” as we like to say and he had an outburst of anger and shouted at his wife and his children.
Nothing major, and he calmed down soon after and he even apologized to everyone, and it could have been a situation which would be forgotten soon – only that something changed in this moment, changed in him and changed for good.

The spirit of anger had entered him.

The outbursts became more frequent and more drastic and a few months down the line, he became physically violent towards his wife for the first time…………. of course, he apologized and promised it will never happen again – but it did…. and a few more months down the line, his wife filed for divorce and left the home they had been living in together for many years.

This is how it starts, friends.

One weak moment.

One moment of sin.

Or shall I say one unrepented moment.

The devil is not stupid, friends.

He will not tempt us to rob a bank when we have never, ever stolen anything before or when we are not prone to steal.

He will not ask us to kill someone when we have no capacity and no intention of anger in us – or at least not when we are aware that we need to repent when we get angry so that the spirit of anger will not be able to build a foothold in our lives.

He will start small.

Unnoticed.

He will not come with a large sign and saying “I am the spirit of anger and I will enter you now!”- no, he will sneak in, he will come from behind, he will stay hidden as long as he can – and he will never, ever play fair.
He will use whatever he can to tempt us, to weaken us, to attack us from the front, from behind and on all sides at the same time… he will use sin, he will use trauma, he will use carelessness, lack of knowledge – anything he can.

And then we will lose our temper – or our self-control – we will fall. Or we will be defiled…

And if we miss this moment, if we miss to be careful, if we miss to repent and seek GOD’s forgiveness and HIS mercy and HIS help, then the power of the enemy over us will grow.

I’ve been there, friends.

And I can only recommend to us all to prevent sin from “piling up”, to prevent the enemy from gaining more and more power over us: to repent daily!
Of known and unknown sins.
To ask THE HOLY SPIRIT to reveal to us where we are not pleasing to GOD.
That’s what I do.
And I am far from perfect!
GOD is telling me things I need to work on and things I did wrong every day.
And I get something wrong every day.
But repentance makes me stronger, helps me to be purified by GOD, helps me to gain more self-control and helps me to get closer to GOD.

This is the first point I wanted to make.

Repentance is the first step to take the devil’s power out of our lives.

The next thing is to ask GOD to deliver us.

From the consequences of our sin.

And these are oftentimes that some sort of spirit has gained the right to enter us.

And the longer it can stay there, the stronger it will get, the more time it will have, the more it can grow and can bring other spirits with it and they can literally “gang up” against us – if we don’t repent and don’t seek deliverance.

This is the spiritual view on it.

In the world, this man in our example above will have had many offers of help – from friends, who will have offered to speak to him, perhaps they will have tried couple councelling, or he will have gone to see a therapist alone….. and perhaps he would have learned to manage his outbursts – perhaps not – perhaps they would have stayed away – perhaps not. Therapy may have been successful for him…. or not.

But something else would have worked for sure – 100% guaranteed!

If he would have been blessed, he will have belonged to a church or will have had a Christian friend or will have come across some sort of resource to suggest that he needs deliverance and this will have helped him get free from this spirit and in this case, his marriage will have been saved and it will not have ended up in divorce – for sure!

In fact, I wish I had been a believer many years earlier when my marriage failed and ended up in divorce, because deliverance would have saved it – whereas me being a therapist and marriage councelling didn’t….

What I have seen is that deliverance / salvation (in my understanding, deliverance is a smaller form of salvation) can change lives, can renew the situation and a person totally.
And that it works every time!
I have seen it in my life, I have seen it in other people’s lives.
And that’s why I believe that deliverance is so important and that we should all talk about it, promote it, support it, seek it, help others get it, learn ourselves how to get it and point anyone and everyone we come across who is struggling with sin and sin related consequences towards it.
Outside but even more so INSIDE the church!

In my understanding, evil spirits manifest not only when people are hissing and wiggling on the floor, but also when they are having anger outbursts, or when they are becoming physically violent, or when they are being manipulative, threatening (these 2 are from my knowledge mostly tied to the spirit of witchcraft, and I am sharing this view with Derek Prince, who is a famous teacher about demons and evil spirits), someone who is depressed and suicidal, someone who cannot stop using a substance, someone who is addicted to porn, to sex and to cheating, someone who is envious, someone who is gossiping all the time – these are all more or less severe manifestations of evil spirits in them and these are all signs that this person needs deliverance.

Even sin itself is a manifestation of evil spirits in my understanding, as we are carnal in nature, yes, I know that and I agree to it and I know from my own experience that it is very hard to overcome or defeat fleshly desires and cravings – but just as the SPIRIT OF GOD can manifest in us and through us – when we pray, when we prophesy, when we dream, when we help others, when we love them, when we teach them something which will edify them or help them grow, when we do GOD’s will – so can we also do the devil’s will for our lives and for the lives of others and just like we can connect to or yield to the SPIRIT OF GOD in every moment of our lives, so can we also yield to the other one and to sin.

There is a daily war going on – the war of the SPIRIT OF GOD against the enemy, and the war of the spirit against the flesh in us.
Paul sums it up in this passage of Galatians:

Galatians 5: 16 – 26
¹⁶ This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
¹⁷ For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
¹⁸ But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ²⁰ Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
²¹ Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
²⁴ And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
²⁶ Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

What I understand as my duty now is to do my best to become pure and to keep myself from sin and to walk in the spirit.

And I am expecting my church to and appreciating when my church will assist me in this, as it is biblical.

I appreciate when the pastor of my church is speaking about issues of purity, which are not often addressed in churches, from the pulpit, and when he is telling the congregation that the church expects them to abstain from sexual immorality for instance.
That the church is not supporting sex outside of marriage.
I appreciate that and I believe this is also what GOD wants and what HE is saying.

And I know – and those of you who have been reading my posts in the past will also know – that I have been guilty of sexual immorality in the past, I have repented of my sin, I have stopped sinning in this area of my life and I have asked GOD for forgiveness and for deliverance and for healing from the consequences.

And GOD has heard me.

I am grateful as can be that HE has freed me.

I know that HE is the only one who can do that and I am also aware that not my will power, but only the power of GOD can protect me against this very same sin I was committing.
So I am far from boasting that I got free through my own efforts or strengths or powers – the contrary is true.
I was delivered by GOD because I humbled myself and because I yielded to HIM and submitted to HIS will and asked for help from THE HOLY SPIRIT.

So I am glad that this is currently not an issue in my life.

At the same time, I know this will only stay this way if GOD will help me – and I know from experience how this can defile us and how it can hinder our walk with GOD.
Plus I know what to do about it.

And if or when I see someone in the church who is sinning or manifesting, I will always tell them that I believe they need deliverance!

I will be assuming someone is manifesting when I either notice in their behavior towards me or in my presence that they have anger issues or when they will tell me that they had a conflict at their home with someone and it got so intense that the neighbors threatened to call the police.
Or when they tell me that they are sinning all the time, or when they tell me that they have committed a crime, or when they are trying to manipulate or intimidate me for something I have said to them, even for telling them that I believe that they need deliverance.
When they are pressuring me or others, when I notice they are trying to manipulate someone to get their way… when they are not honoring others whilst they insist everyone must honor their needs and requests, when they are complaining about others all the time, when they are blaming others for their situation, when I notice they are lying about me or to me, when they won’t allow a conversation to end, keeping me on the phone for very long after I have tried to go, when they seem unsettled and agitated and needy, when they are sinning and cannot stop, when they tell me that councelling didn’t help them, when they are accusative and manipulative in their demeanor towards me or towards other people and they are telling me about it, when they tell me that they are unable to stay sexually pure, when they are telling me they are drinking so much that they keep passing out, when they are talking behind my back or gossiping about other people to me – these are just some examples which will all be indicators for me that they need deliverance – and I will tell them that I believe they do!
Especially when I hear someone say that they went to see a councellor for a long time and that this hasn’t helped them, I will be suggesting that I believe there could be spiritual causes for their problems which need to be addressed.
And I will suggest that they should start by doing some research and build up their knowledge about deliverance, that it will be good for them to contact someone who can help them with these issues and that in my experience and understanding, these issues will not go away on their own, that they need to be dealt with.

I will take these signs above in myself and anyone else inside or outside the church as a sign that there is a need for deliverance.
Outside the church, I may not say anything directly, as I know that the world does not understand the concept of deliverance and that many people will not know what I am talking about or will be disturbed.
Inside the church, I will speak up towards anyone who is displaying any signs of demonisation, especially when they are manifesting towards me – and I will say to them that I believe they need deliverance.

And I will keep saying it – regardless who they involve to make me stop saying it.
Regardless if they will attack me for saying that.
Towards me directly and towards or via others.

Because that’s exactly what their demons will make them do!
And the more they will attack me for saying they need deliverance, the more I will know that they indeed do.
I don’t mind if they start a campaign about me for some reason, because I know it is not them, but the devils in them – and I will do what I can to help them first.
I will talk to them, telling them what I know and where I would recommend they should do some further research.
If they are unwilling to listen and will get offended and will keep manifesting, I will write about them on this blog and will send them the link to the post.
If they then turn against me, that’s fine.
In that case, I will keep praying for them, but I will withdraw from direct contact with them and will remove myself from the direct fire line – and from anyone on their side, from everyone supporting them in their claims against me.
And I will keep praying for them, for deliverance and for salvation – if it gets too severe, chances are this person is not truly saved and born again… so I will keep praying and asking GOD to deliver them, to open their eyes and to help them – and to help me stand in the storm they are sending my way…

THIS is my understanding of correcting one another in love, of helping and loving each other.

Just as I would appreciate if they corrected me!

It is NOT my understanding of a loving brother or sister in CHRIST to feed another person’s demons and to be considerate that they might be uncomfortable with hearing a truth which might challenge their sin or some of their demons.

That is in my opinion a worldly thing to do and is not what GOD asks us to do.

So my reaction will be to challenge the demon, not to condone to the sin in this person’s life in order to “love” them – a false love in my opinion.

I will rather at least do what I can to fight for their soul instead – even if it means they will be angry and will be manifesting.

And I will go very, very far to stand in this opinion.

I am willing to take any resulting abuse coming from it, coming from them.
I understand what demons can do.
I know that it is not them, not the person.
And I will keep hoping and praying that their rage against me will lead them to a good outcome and to freedom!

I will hope that in their rage, GOD will bring them to the right person – that someone they will talk to will understand what is going on – regardless what they will go to this person for, even if it is to complain about me! – and that someone will help them be delivered!!!

That’s my hope and prayer for the outcome of these things.
And like I said, I believe that’s what GOD wants me to do – wants all of us to do, in fact, many people may disagree and may understand the commandment of “loving one another” differently – they may understand it as making people comfortable in whatever issues they are wallowing in and with whatever demons they are hosting in their bodies and in their lives – me, I don’t share this understanding of love.

Me, I understand loving others as doing what I can to help them get free – this doesn’t mean the process will be comfortable at all times for me or for the other person, as the devil is not going to let anyone go without a fight, and if this fight turns against me, if the person should start manifesting and projecting, that’s fine, I know where I stand and if the whole world would think I was wrong, as long as I am right with GOD and doing what HE called me to do, I don’t care.

If I get into trouble for this inside the church and if I should come into a situation where I have to chose to either be quiet or change or leave, if I have to chose between the church and this approach / opinion/ understanding of Christian love and rebuking demonic activity in the body of CHRIST, which is in my understanding GOD’s understanding, there is not the slightest doubt in me what my choice will be.

We all have to stand in front of GOD one day.
Alone.
Our pastor is not going to stand there for us.
He will give an account for our souls, yes, but in my understanding that doesn’t mean we are not going to stand before GOD ourselves.
And when I stand there, I don’t want HIM to ask me why I did not correct this person, why I did not at least try to help them get delivered, why I let them slide more just so that they could feel good or comfortable in that situation /in their sin, where they had put themselves in….

How about you, my friend?
Have you been in a situation like this?
Or have you thought about it?
What would you do?
And what if the person you will tell that they need deliverance will then start manifesting?
How would you react?
Would you “back off” or would you keep challenging them?
What if the church leadership would not support you?
Would you leave the church or stop challenging the demons in the person?
Very interested to hear your opinions, especially if you have had experiences with deliverance… please comment below and let me know what you think.

I hope and pray that this will inspire, heal, encourage and bless you.
And that THE LORD will bless you abundantly in all areas of your life, that HE will keep you and shine HIS face upon you and bring you peace. In JESUS’ name I pray. AMEN.