FIRST THINGS FIRST!
1. You must be truly born again! This takes place when God's spirit convinces you of the reality of Jesus Christ and you respond to God, saying in effect, "Yes, I was wrong. I need you as my Savior and I want you as my Lord. I'm deeply sorry for the way I have lived without you. But now, I give my life to you. Come into me, Lord Jesus." Without the foundation of a true born-again experience all attempts to break free of satanic influence are ultimately doomed.
Being born again involves two things on your part, which can occur in any order. The first is faith. "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6). "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any many should boast." (Ephesians 2:8,9). It is through faith that we recognise Jesus Christ and His right to be God in our lives. This faith is a certain inward knowing which leads to responses of love towards God. You must believe that Jesus died for you, to pay for your sins, and that God raised Him from the dead. Without this faith, you cannot be saved, nor lastingly delivered.
The other principle most people, including myself, find more difficult. It is wrapped up with the paradox that Jesus referred to when He said, "He who seeks to save his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will find it." It is repentance. You can only be delivered to the extent that you allow the root of self-will, pride and independence from God to be taken out. Sure it is painful. Its rather like taking out a rotten tooth or a cancer that threatens to poison and destroy the whole body. But without repentance, demons will always have something to come back to. Shallow repentance puts us in a shallow place with God. Deep repentance puts us in a secure place with God. Without repentance, Jesus promises you will "lose your life", you will "perish". The Bible teaches that those who live on in sin will not inherit the kingdom of God. So consider well. Both the decision to repent and the decision not to are very costly. True faith will help you to see which path is ultimately the best one, which leads to life, not loss.
Sin is basically a "me-first" attitude of heart in which God's laws are rebelled against and God's involvement is resented.. Out of this principle of sin come all of the "sins" - things like adultery, hatred, masturabation, greed, envy and strife, which reinforce this separation from God. The whole tree, as well as its branches, need to go. What you do not finally deal with will eventually rise up to enslave and destroy you again. We can only escape from satanic influence to the extent that we are honest and thorough on this point. By all means begin with Jesus - and trust Him to change your heart - but remember that it takes your participation in the matter as well.
If you are not sure if you are born again, why not make sure by taking this step in the form of a prayer of repentance and faith in God. Just click on the link, read the prayer, think about it and the pray it to yield yourself to God. You cannot really be permanently free from Satanic influence unless you freely give your life to Jesus. Please contact me if you have now decided to do this, or you have questions before you take this step.
Vital Keys for Deliverance
I've chosen the passage of Scripture found in James 4:4-10 for this (please read it) because it gives some major keys for getting a clean heart. Although God is sovereign and can cause any person to experience some measure of deliverance, it is now well known that meeting certain conditions will make it a lot easier for you or any person you minister to to receive deliverance. Here are some major keys:
1. Avoid friendship with "the world". James said friendship with the world is enmity with God. This doesn't mean don't have friendly relationships with non-christians. It does mean not to join yourself in close relationships with ungodly people where you are sharing their spirit and attitude. How can God free you from demons on the one hand if you are drinking them in on the other - through loving the ways of ungodly people - be they friends or media personalities on the box (television). You can't expect a powerful deliverance while you are giving your imagination passively to the ungodly programming of the media and entertainment industry. You need songs of praise in your heart and mind, not songs of entertainment, if you want God to move in your life. God's comfort is better than what the comfort the world offers, but you have to choose which you would rather have.
2. Have hope based on knowing God’s will for you.
Satan seeks to discourage, and bring us down into despair. God doesn't want us to despair - thinking we will never get free of satanic bondage. You will, if you just keep paying attention to His Word and the voice of His spirit more and more.
If you have given your life to Christ, Christ wants to take possession of what you have given to Him. This is only logical. As He does, He will work ever so wonderfully to get everything unclean out of your life. He wants to drive out the demons. Unite with His desire on this point, and look forward to the peace and joy you will enjoy because of it. As you pray, you will attract the Spirit of God. Your capacity to pray will grow from 2 minutes a day to 2 hours or more a day as the Spirit works more in your life. Prayer is a necessary condition for getting delivered and staying delivered. But it is not enough - you need faith too. Don't worry though, faith will come.
The Bible says, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously” (James 4:5). We should realise that the Holy Spirit is very jealous for us and certainly wants to get all the demons out of us. So we can have strong hope in God and faith that He wants to help us. We must never fall into despair concerning God’s willingness or power to help us. We are getting free to make room for the Holy Spirit to bring the kingdom of God more fully into our lives.
It is the knowledge of the truth which makes you free (John 8:32). Therefore, meditate on the portions of the Word of God relevant to your problem, and ask the Holy Spirit to quicken them to you.
3. Have FAITH in the grace of God.
“But He gives more grace.” (James 4:6). It is by the Spirit of God, by grace, that we are going to be delivered from evil spirits (Matthew 12:28). We need to trust and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in all this. God's grace is at work in our initial salvation experience, but also in all subsequent deliverance. Satan had good reasons to have us in bondage, but now because of Jesus' love and grace, we can get more and more free every day.
Faith means at some point accepting that God has given you legally what you already need. You "see" this even though your experience contradicts it. You ask for deliverance, believing that you receive. Then, after following the steps below, you can begin declaring and demanding that demons leave you and mountains of oppression be cast into the proverbial "sea" (Mark 11:23).
4. Humility. Therefore he says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6). Humility means a sober opinion of ourselves, in the light of God's glory. We can only have good qualities because God put them there anyway. God is the one who is able to make the difference for you. God’s power flows to deliver us when we humble ourselves (James 4:10). In relation to deliverance, this humilty implies the following:
a. Be willing to be honest about it and admit your need for help. A proud person will not do this. Satan would love to convince Christians through false theology or false faith teaching that they have no need of deliverance when their lives prove otherwise. The appeal is made to pride, "Fancy thinking I have a demon. Ridiculous!"
b. Admit that you need to change. Drop the rebellious attitude and get a teachable spirit.
c. Be willing to let God’s Spirit minister deliverance to you in any way He chooses, even if you feel that it might make you look silly. Don’t decide beforehand what you will and won’t permit to happen to you. You might just hold the demon in if you do that. Sometimes demons have to manifest when they come out - it might be through a cough, a yawn, tears or vomiting - to give a few possible examples.
5. Know the Truth
Jesus said, “If you abide in my Word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the knowledge of the truth shall set you free”. (John 8:31,32)
Satan wants us ignorant concerning what he is doing in our lives. When we know the truth that knowledge is the key to our deliverance. “Through knowledge, the righteous shall be delivered” (Proverbs 11:9). The more relevant knowledge you have in your heart and mind, the greater and fuller can be your deliverance. Some knowledge only tends to puff us up - the knowledge we really need will show us the need to change to be more like Christ.
We need knowledge concerning two things - God’s Word and ourselves - our own condition. The two are related.
If you are serious about deliverance I recommend listening for hours to the Bible on audio tape. This requires less discipline that personal Bible study and is also many times more powerful, since we hear the Word.
We must also know the truth about ourselves. Not just what we are in Christ, but also about what we are manifesting through our words, deeds and behaviour. These things are a fruit of our heart condition, and the kind of thoughts we are tolerating in our own minds. We must be willing to face up to it and acknowledge it. This takes humility. We need to call things by their right names. For example, if you have been enslaved to alcohol or other drugs, don't call it a "disease". Call it sin, and cry out to God for freedom from it.
Knowing the truth includes knowing what God means by sin. The moral law of God as revealed in the Bible gives us his knowledge. For example, idolatry (loving or valuing something or someone more than God the Creator), unbelief, pride, fear of man, complaining, slander, sex outside of marriage and occult activities are all sin and must be repented of. Occult activities, even on the part of our ancestors are especially dangerous in opening the door to demons. These activities include but are not limited to any form of astrology, consulting fortune tellers, channelers or
Get your free registration and log in to view entire article
Post new comment