Quote:
Originally Posted by ModestMama
Ah now i am confused.  So deliverance ministries aren't biblical?
If not then, I am all wrong about what I felt God was/is leading me to....which means i have no idea whose voice i hear ...ahhh this is so disheartening! |
This is what I have seen and experienced, in a nutshell.
The church assembles, and visitors sometimes come to the meeting. The people of God pray and sing and begin to worship the Lord. The power and presence of God envelops His people. The visitor feels or experiences the presence of God, too.
In whatever way God chooses, He begins to personally deal with and minister to the visitor beyond any natural or mortal means, through His Spirit.
The person begins to cry and weep, feeling for the first time the sheer love and joy of the Heavenly Father, and they find themselves overcome with a desire to be saved.
And many do, just like that. They repent, receiving the Holy Spirit and are immersed.
But everyone once in awhile, the same thing happens, but unbeknownst to most of the members of the assembly, the visitor is in a supernaturally created impure state. An evil spirit has a hold on or over them. Sometimes the visitor doesn't even know it.
God in His mercy, leads mature, dedicated and sanctified members of the local assembly to an understanding that something is amiss with the visitor. Wise leadership will take over and call for repentance and submission to God and His Word.
If the visitor wants to be saved and set free, now is their chance to humble themselves before God and be delivered. If they reject the call to repentance and submission to God and His Word, they might walk out, or sit down, or cause a commotion or distraction to try and interfere with what God is doing.
If the person humbles themselves and begins to confess to God and repents, mature, seasoned saints will move to where the visitor is sitting, and begin to minister to him or her through the charismata of the Holy Spirit.
God in His mercy will then allow the evil spirit to show itself, or manifest, and it will become clear that it needs to be cast out. At this point, if and only if the visitor truly wants to be free and is completely willing to renounce Satan and his ways in their life, will such a person be delivered.
If the visitor isn't willing to surrender completely to God, and wants to keep some of their sin and rebellion, no amount of "In Jesus' Name!" casting out is going to change the visitor's impure state.
But when the person does desire God and is willing to give themselves over to Him all the way, it's by natural course, as a normal part of the process of coming to God, the power of Christ kicks the evil spirit to the curb. And as if often the case, as it was in the Gospels, the departing evil spirit will try to humiliate or injure the person from whom it is being cast. One last hurrah, so to speak, to mar the image of God and make the visitor feel too condemned in heart to trust in the Lord.
But, no matter. Away the foul thing goes, and God goes about filling that person with the Holy Spirit. They speak with other tongues and magnify God. The saints rejoice and shout and clap their hands to the Lord. Someone sits down with the visitor afterward, for a few moments and discusses being immersed in the name of the Lord Jesus, showing them in the Holy Scriptures the purpose and method of baptism. They agree. They get changed, are led to the water, and in they go. They are immersed in the name of Jesus, all sin is remitted, and another name gets written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
In my experience, there ought not be much more than this going on. Deliverance should simply be a normal part of the Apostolic Church experience, no different than evangelism, worship, study and devotion, or etc.
BUT! Because this type of thing seems to be more and more rare, the Church has lost track of how to be involved in how the Lord draws and saves the demoniac, so that alternative methods become attractive and interesting. Much damage is done when this happens.
So, if the Lord wants you to be involved in this aspect of church life and ministry, there isn't a whole lot you have to do or study. Just as Esaias pointed out is sufficient. Become one with the Lord through intimacy and relationship, by praying, particularly in the Spirit, by studying and TRUSTING His Word, and as needed, fasting. Otherwise, just continue to be a part of your local assembly, sing and dance and worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, and whatever God wants to do with fall into place.
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