Healing Through Deliverance

"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." (Acts 10:38)

In the gospel accounts, there is plenty of evidence that physical healing and deliverance from evil spirits are closely related.

"And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

"Then his fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed (Gk: daimonizomai - demonized), epileptics, and paralytics, and He healed them." (Matthew 4:23,24).

When Jesus preached the message about the Kingdom, it was a message of God's effective rule coming. The signs of the coming of the Kingdom included the destruction of Satan's works. Amongst these are sicknesses and torments. These things often go hand in hand. They are both due to the operation of evil spirits in the bodies and souls of men.

Are All Physical Problems due to Demons?

I do not say this. If someone falls over and breaks their arm, the broken arm is not due to a demon. Sometimes such wounds are prevented from healing due to demonic infestation or a curse, but that is another matter.

Poor diet or overeating, especially of the wrong foods, can open the door for disease. This has been well established. If you fill your arteries with cholesterol, its not necessarily the devil's fault if you have a heart attack. But if you have a spirit of gluttony - a very common problem amongst the people of God, then demons are related on the onset of disease, albeit perhaps not directly.

Having said this, a lot of internal diseases and disabilities involve direct demonic oppression. Demons may find access to a person's life through some kind of generational curse, and this can mean that a person, even a Christian person, may be afflicted with multiple spirits of infirmity, which need to be driven out. Demons can work to reinforce sickness, and magnify the oppression over people's lives. It is extremely common. Demonic infestation in Christians of one degree or another is at least as common as the presence of physical sickness in Christians. These things need not be. Jesus took our infirmities and bore our diseases at the cross. But the victory of calvary must be appropriated - otherwise for us, it is no more than a legal provision that we have neglected to our own hurt.

The Ministry of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ clearly had a ministry of total liberation. For Jesus, it was not enough to preach only about a legal state of righteousness with God without demonstrating the power of the Kingdom to make a difference in people's lives! For example, Jesus did tell the paralytic man in Mark 2, "Your sins are forgiven you" but went further and demonstrated he had authority to say this by the next word, "I say to you, arise, take up your mat, and walk". It is easy to SAY "your sins are forgiven you". Anyone can say this, but not all can say it with authority from God. Some preachers will tell you your sins are forgiven when you are still clinging to them! Jesus did more than declare unseen and unverifiable things. By the same authority, Jesus told the paralyzed man in Mark 2 to walk - and it happened, SHOWING that there is more to Jesus' authority than theological assertions.

Now God wants not only our souls but also our bodies to be free from satanic harrassment. Some people are only interested in the healing of their bodies, and they don't expose the unrighteousness in their souls to the Lord, so the Lord has a free hand to move in their entire being. This is a serious mistake. Now God can do things for people in any order He chooses. He can, if he wishes, physically heal a person with all kinds of soulish issues requiring deliverance. God is sovereign. But many times, especially in the life of a believer in Christ, the healing of the soul takes precedence over the healing of the body, and God will not work unless certain issues are dealt with.

Deliverance from evil spirits at the level of the soul prepares us to receive from God at the physical level also. It also prepares us to move in the power of the Holy Spirit for the deliverance and healing of others. Many times it is the internal bondage to wickedness in ministers of the gospel that is limiting the flow of God's power to others. Does that sound too harsh? Well, God talks, for example, about "an evil heart of unbelief that departs from the living God" (Hebrews 3:12). There could well be degrees of this - not all of them relating to personal salvation. Unbelief concerning certain promises of God could be a spiritual bondage that a minister of the gospel needs freedom from.

People seeking healing MUST forgive those who have wronged them. If we hope to extract justice from those who have wronged us, and hold the pain of the injustice in our hearts, we are going to miss out on a lot of God's blessings. Forgiving others from the heart and "tearing up the IOU" so to speak - is an essential condition of deliverance, healing, faith, receiving answers from God, and even of God's forgiveness. That is the teaching of Jesus. (See Matthew 6:14,15; Mark 11:25; Matthew 18:30). I have seen people who have been healed physically only when they yielded to the Spirit of God on this point. Jesus said God would deliver us TO the tormentors if we do not forgive our brother from our heart.

The verse quoted above in Acts 10:38 proves that SICKNESS IS A WORK OF THE DEVIL. Jesus healed those who were "oppressed by the devil" - not "oppressed by God". If we can grasp this one thing, we can proceed with an undivided soul to wage warfare on sickness wherever we find it. Yes, God may be looking for other forms of deliverance in people's lives at first, but we can be sure that He really wants them to be healed physically.

The gospels attribute much sickness and disability directly to the work of demons. When the spirit causing the physical problem is cast out by the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority of the name of Jesus, healing often happens immedi

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