I really was done with the deliverance ministry issue… but something parallel has come up and I thought I would address it.

One of the things that I find unreal this season is that Christians would attach each other over political positions.. I mean seriously; I don’t care if you are liberal or conservative politically, that has no bearing on your salvation or walk with God at all.

The reason I am tying it in with the DeliveranceIndustry ™ posting is some of the statements and accusations being hurled about. Making the same mistakes that DM’s do with their assumptions. Just because you disagree with someone’s political positions doesn’t mean that they are possessed. Especially when you are talking to another Christian. If one’s soul is occupied by the Holy Spirit, it’s not going to contain a horde of demons also. I’ve seen this in DM circles as well as it came up in political discussions recently. Kind of silly, actually, when you think about the situation.

If the followers of Jesus would simply go back to God’s way of Bible reading and Prayer, the world could be turned upside down again. And it won’t matter who’s in the White House.

Since Deliverance ministries have made their way back onto my radar, I think that I will address them now…. proceed with caution…..

My first experience with Deliverance wasn’t exactly a good one. I had left the magik paths and been following Jesus for about six years at the time. During a brief stay in Massachusetts a gentleman who heard my background insisted that I needed to have a demon of witchcraft cast out. Keep in mind that I hadn’t noticed any critters hanging around and since I am a Christian, being possessed wasn’t something I was concerned with. Anyway, he started praying in ‘tongues’ over me and the check in my spirit was the second clue that something wasn’t right…. and it wasn’t with me. I don’t doubt that he was sincere. I know that he was sincerely wrong.

That was a rather tame episode compared to what some folks go through. Deliverance runseverywhere between fairly calm andviolently abusive. Just as Deliverance Ministers run from sincere believers to opportunistic predators. I freely admit that my sampling is comprised of the experiences of former witches, but somehow I find it difficult to believe that there is much difference within the population at large.

Pretty much without exception, The Deliverance Minister will maintain that God has called him/her to this ministry. Okay; I don’t have an insurmountable problem with that assertion. However, I do want to see scriptural justification for the things that they are saying and doing. After all, I can do so for my position on the matter. Clue- it’s at the end of the book of Mark. More on that later. There is another issue at play here. Actually two, but they are fairly interconnected so I will bring them up together. First there seems to be this need make a complex method to explain and ‘do’ deliverance. They want the demon’s name and position in the spiritual pecking order for starters. Some get so caught up that they try to learn all they can about demons and share that ‘knowledge’. Scriptures please. Anyway, that has led over the years, to the Deliverance Industries complete with ‘how-to’ books and larger books about demons of all kinds. Real and imagined. These tend to remind me more of books on magik than anything biblical. It makes sense though, because if it is complicated it leads to more books to sell, etc.

Now, back to my views on ‘deliverance’:

Is it real? yes.

Is it the business of a small group of Christians? No.

You see, when it gets back to the Bible, any Christian can rebuke a demon. Some are harder to get rid of than others, and we are advised to fast and pray for dealing with those. Basically, I don’t see Deliverance or more broadly, Spiritual warfare, to be special ministries at all. We are here to introduce people to Jesus. Healings, miracles, deliverance etc, are almost incidental to that as we keep our focus on winning souls to Jesus.

Ye ole ExWitch, just keeping it real.