The Triumphant Church (Lesson 6)

The New and Living Way Church, Ikorodu.

Meeting: Sunday Service

Date: 16th May, 2021

Ministers: Pastor Laide Olaniyan & Bro Niyi

Bro Niyi

MISCONCEPTION ON DELIVERANCE IN THE CHURCH

Last week, we learnt how to manage our thoughts and not to lose guard of our mind so we do not open the door to the devil. We also saw that evil spirits remain in authority through the nature they have cultured in men – men live by this nature. We do not pray for spirits to be dethroned, rather, we pray that the Word, which will dethrone them, be preached in that locality. Also when we pray in tongues, many things that we do not understand will be settled.

BEING LED BY THE HOLYSPIRIT TO MINISTER DELIVERANCE

(Acts 16:16-18; Matthew 8:17; Luke 10:19; 1 Peter 2:24) There is something known in the church as deliverance ministry. We tend to think that this is an African thing, but we can see even from the time of Papa Hagin that the deliverance ministry already existed where churches focus on casting out demons. There is an erroneous teaching – that most Christians have devils in them that needs casting out. This deliverance ministry has no scriptural basis because an example can’t be found in the New Testament of the early church dealing with devils in Christians.

We must understand that before the early church, there were no Christians. The premise of Romans 10:10 is that we must confess that Jesus died for us and rose again; and at that time, Jesus was yet to die.

It is not possible for a believer to be possessed by the devil in their spirit but the believer can be obsessed in their mind and oppressed in the body by demons. At new birth, we were sealed from being able to be possessed. But we were constantly sinning even after coming into the knowledge of things we ought not to do that can lead to a second death.

Most deliverance services are done in the context of the church and that is why we look also to the early church as an example. We are not completely ruling out deliverance or casting out demons or saying that every Christian is fine. However, what we are saying is that: in dealing with a believer, we should not just assume every time that the believer is possessed by an evil spirit. It’s one thing to know it’s an evil spirit and it’s another thing to know how to deal with it. In Acts 16:16-18, it could be that Apostle Paul was waiting in his spirit on how to deal with the damsel with the spirit of divination who cried after them for days. Ministers ought to learn how to wait in their spirits, rather than just assume there’s only one way to deal with all situations and respond in the flesh.

Many times, people put some kinds of physical manifestation around casting out demons, but we must understand that it is not necessary.

What we are to do first is to teach the word and; dealing with the flesh. The only way to know a demon is present is if the Holy Ghost reveals it to the minister, instructs that something should be done and how it should be done. A lot of times, we do not want to do the work of subjecting our flesh under as believers. So, we seek for an easy way out by seeking for deliverance or those demons be cast out of us and some of us do not mind going for deliverance continuously. Believers ought to be taught the word so they can deal with their flesh.

In seeking for physical manifestation (not by the spirit) when casting out demons, we might contact a demon that we didn’t initially have. We must learn to stay with the word except the Holy Ghost reveals otherwise. We should also not go about seeking out deliverance, because, in those places, there are more operations of demons than of the Spirit.

In teaching the word to a believer about what scripture says about certain issues or situations like healing, for example, you are able to help the believer stand firm and once their will is involved, God can step in because He will never usurp the will of the person. When we are healed by the word, we build our own faith and it helps us to stand strong.

(Luke 8:26) There are different cases in scripture where casting out demons was done with and without manifestation. Any physical manifestation that is not by the Holy Spirit is demonic and we must also understand that if there was a physical manifestation, we should not think there’ll always be that type of physical manifestation. With the damsel with the spirit of divination, there was no manifestation whatsoever when Apostle Paul cast out the demon, so let’s not always assume casting out demons would always have a physical manifestation.

WORKS OF THE FLESH AND NOT A DEMON

We must be careful in trying to label certain patterns of behaviour such as jealousy, gluttony, greed etc as demonic. Galatians 5:19-21 are works of the flesh and if a ministry decides to attach spirits to these works, they will spend a lifetime casting out demons. What we should first look at is how the Word deals with these works of the flesh. The Word has the capacity to deal with each of these works. We are to learn the Word, stay on the Word and obey.

REPEATED DELIVERANCES OVER DEALING WITH FLESH BY THE WORD

There are no instances in scriptures where Jesus or Apostle Paul went repeatedly to minister deliverance, but, what we see is the repeated teaching of the word of God. We can conclude therefore that our deliverance is in the word of God.

Many times, we blame things on evil spirits but it is actually the works of the flesh and what will deal with it is the Word. Even personally seeking deliverance time and time again is not scriptural. Crucifying the flesh may take a little longer and be more difficult to do but a lot of times, that’s the real answer rather than casting out demons. It is knowing and acting on the Word that sets us free. We need to get the Word into ourselves so the Word of God can begin to set us free and not wait until our pastors call for deliverance (2 Timothy 3:16).

CONCLUSION

Even when we cast out demons, we don’t come across that same situation and assume it’s the same way we will cast out demons. Mostly, the healing by the gift of the spirit comes by being led – which we must never lose sight of. And when the gift operates in a particular manner, giving us an experience, we must never build our lives around that experience. We are to always seek God for instruction on how to proceed. (Isaiah 11:1-4) If we start judging things by the spirit, we will see through many false practices in the body of Christ. Many of us believers judge things by the things we see or feel and evil spirits can set a type of atmosphere that will feed on that. This is why we must judge things by our spirit having grown by the Word of God.