Hi children
This is the final section on the topic of deliverance. I'm sure by now you realise how destructive the powers of darkness can be. If you give yourself to an immoral pattern of life, a spiritual laxity, the devil can come in behind that & take control of your life. The bible says that the devil is like a roaring lion..1Peter 5:8 "Be self controlled & alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."
A glass or 2 glasses of wine may be acceptable to you but if you move from 2 to 5 and 6, you are too way down the road. The devil will say, "Now I can come in behind that 5th glass of wine." or " I can come in behind that tendency to violence, cussing or pornography & I can build a stronghold & destroy that person's life."
In my earlier years, I could not understand why some who went through deliverance were not delivered. There are reasons :
1) Lack of Repentance
If there is no genuine repentance, then there is no guarantee that a person will be delivered.
2) Lack of Desperation
Deliverance is for the desperate & unless you are desperate, you will still be in bondage. Although Christ has given us authority over evil spirits, we who help with the deliverance do not have authority over human wills. That person has to will for himself to want to be delivered.
3) Wrong Motives
James 4:3 says it clearly "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."
We are not delivered to get off the hook. We are delivered to enter into our destiny & serve God.
4) Self-Centredness
That is a desire for attention. Some people (not all are extreme) who are poor (hungry for love etc), neglected & rejected people like the attention that they get from people helping them. That is probably the only time when they get the centre of the stage. Often after many rounds, when I realise a person is simply vying for attention but not genuinely changing, I simply tell them that they have heard enough, know enough scriptures & they can do it themselves.
5) Failure to break with the Occult
Failure to break with the occult includes getting rid of occult objects like charms, little buddhas, items bought from Ghost Festival, crystals for good luck, horseshoe or even keeping a dead parent's strands of hair or a tooth! Yesss... it's true, people do that even in the 21st century.
6) Failure to sever evil soulish relationship
Evil here means binding, unhealthy & enslaving. People will not be delivered if they fail to break evil soul ties. You can refer to April's mention of soul ties.
7) Under a Curse
If there is a generation curse, a person will not be delivered or healed until the curse is broken.
8) Failure to confess a specific sin
It can be anything. A girl goes for deliverance but everytime that spirit is being called out, it just get stuck in the throat and refuses to come out. There is a blockage & that blockage was the unconfessed sin of abortion. The girl had to confess that sin. She had to confess abortion specifically as murder before that spirit of ___ could be expelled.
9) Not separated by Water Baptism
D Prince said that water baptism is significant. According to him, the Israelite were delivered in Egypt (Israel's enemy) by the blood of the lamb but they were separated from Egypt by the waters of the Red Sea. It was the water that prevented the Egyptians following the Israelites; they could follow as far as the water. This is controversial & may not be accepted by everyone. My personal opinion is that being water baptized is one of the things that help us make a separation between us and the demonic although some people treat it as a religious ritual which they shouldnt.
Many years ago, FCBC baptized a born again gangster who had not only tattoos on his whole body but he had inscribed satanic symbols on his arms. The minute he came out of the water, his satanic symbols disappeared but his tattoos were still there! The meaning of the act of water baptism is this : When a person goes down into the water, it means he is buried with Christ, dead to his old nature. When he comes up from the water, he is resurrected with Christ, having a new nature. Water baptism is important as a Christian is telling the world that he wants to be one with Christ & I know it is also a command that needs to be obeyed. The Spirit of God wants to empower us by re-enacting the burial & resurrection of Jesus so that we are delivered from the powers of this age.
10) Part of a larger battle
This is a complicated one as it requires corporate action. Some people are satan's battlefield. Satan will not let them go not because of what they are themselves but of what they stand for - people for whom the whole body has to take responsibility. There was a man with Hodgkin's disease & who is part of a fellowship cell. If anything went wrong with the fellowship spiritually, he would begin to get sick. But if spiritually the fellowship is right, he would be well. Ultimately, satan got a foothold into the fellowship, caused division among the people and split the group apart. The man ultimately died.
His physical condition was an accurate barometer of the spiritual fellowship he was in. There are people like that, you dont have a choice.
In our previous house, you know we installed safety devices like placing the alarms at windows & doors to keep out intruders coz the house is too big. You may not know what's happening on the 1st floor if you are on the 3rd floor, right children? Like Calvin would often hide when I called for him??? I cant even find you! Tabby too when she was in the mood to play hide and seek. Installing alarms was not wrong coz you need to protect your family against intruders. But on top of that, people keep religious icons likes crucifixes (not us) & other 'superstitious' objects to keep out evil. There are NO physical objects where you can position in your life that's going to keep out the evil. Children, we can only build a hedge of protection against the enemy by living out the truth of Jesus Christ; by living in such a way that the Spirit of God can work in our lives & raise up a barrier against evil.
I believe you both will receive protection coz we want to live right. Psalms 112:1-2 & 7 say "Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in his commands. His children will be mighty in the land, the generation of the upright will be blessed."
vs7.. He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord."
Love, Mum
