BY Argie Simonis
In the previous messages of the "Mind of Christ" series, I explained some fundamental truths that we as Christians need to know so that we can stand in the battle and resist the enemy. That is why it is necessary to see the previous messages before viewing this one.
Today I will explain how the deliverance ministry works. I have already talked about the philosophy that each person has, that is, his personal way of thinking that eventualy shapes his decisions and actions. There are two basic philosophies on which churches operate today:
- The philosophy of preplanning or predestination,
according to which the church operates according to a specific program, with the certainty that it will achieve its goals. Within this mold, the practices used are specific and no modifications or changes are anticipated.
- The philosophy of war,
where the church recognizes that it is at war, it is flexible and ready to adapt to the needs that exist and recognizes that our battle is not against flesh and blood (Eph. 6:10-18).
The ministry of deliverance is based on the second philosophy, the philosophy of war. The first philosophy I mentioned (of preplanning or predestination) explains why many Christians do not believe in the supernatural and of course do not experience it. They believe for example that healings and miracles were only part of the ministry of the first apostles, but they have passed away because now we have the written word of God and that is enough for us. Is this something that you recognize today?
Let's take them one by one. The first case is the philosophy of pre-planning/predestination.
One of the church fathers, Saint Augustine introduced this philosophy, where he presented a version of God stretched so far to the extreme that God is ultimately responsible, He creates or approves every evil that happens in the world, in order to fulfill some mysterious plan that He has and to be glorified in a mysterious way that He does not reveal to us.
There are places in God's word that could partially support such a view, but any time you take any truth of God and stretch it to the extreme, you will end up in error. In fact, this is the reason why so many false teachings and heresies have sprung up.
The same is true with deliverance. If you stretch the deliverance ministry to the extreme, you will find yourself at the point where you ignore basic things like biblical discipleship, discipline, repentance, and holiness. You will begin to see demons behind every corner and ignore the fact that some people may be sick from physical factors and need medical help because of physical and mental disorders they have.
In summary, what I believe began with St. Augustine and later spread within the church, is that all evil that exists is in God's will, or inother words He allows it in order to accomplish His mysterious will so that He may be glorified.
How can you love and trust such a God and how can you resist and fight evil if you believe God is the One who authorized it in the first place? This kind of theology is very dangerous, it confuses believers and creates passive Christians.
I understand that we all want to see God glorified through our lives and the lives of other people, but I want you to ask you how can the rape of a child work for the mysterious glory of God, or the view that God predestined some people to perish in hell that He may be glorified?
When we examine the Scriptures with the mind of Christ, we see a completely different reality than this kind of philosophy. I will use some very familiar words that Jesus said when He prayed to the Father:
"Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Μatt. 6:10
This means that what happens on earth is not necessarily in God's will. We see Jesus speaking to the waves, calming storms, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. If the storms, the sickness, death and demons were in the will of God, then either God is sadistic and likes to torture us, or Jesus was in disobedience to the Father.
But we know that God is a God of love and not only does He not approve or allows evil, but is also at war against it:
"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that Ηe might destroy the works of the devil." 1John 3:8
All evil is the work of the devil and not of God. Every death, every disaster, every disease, every famine and every injustice that happens in the world is the finger of the devil and not of God.
It is about time that we Christians can recognize the fingerprints of the real perpetrator for every evil that happens.
The reason I bring this up is that as I said, such a mindset creates completely passive Christians. You cannot accept the ministry of deliverance if you have this confusion in you heart and you are not sure whether to fight evil or thank God for allowing it.
All this that I am telling you is not just theories or information. They are personal revelations and experiences that my wife Peggy and I have had over the years we have been in ministry and the same way they have changed our lives, I hope they will change yours too.
Let's see a little more practically at what I'm trying to say. You go to church on Sunday and pray to God to give you strength to endure the cancer that for some mysterious reason He has allowed you to have, and you ask Him through this sickness to complete His plan so that His name may be glorified.
Ok, I accept that the Lord can use every evil that happens to us for His glory and turn every curse into a blessing. But when you start to blame God for the evil that happens to you and ask for His help to deal with it, you automatically go against Christ himself, who
"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." Acts 10:38
Now watch how the story continues, which is the point that causes the most confusion:
On Sunday in church you pray
"Lord give me strength to bear the cancer You have allowed me to have"
and on Monday you go to the doctor and ask
"Doctor help me kill the cancer".
One day you are thanking God for making you sick so that His mysterious will can be fulfilled in your life, and the next day you are trying to find the best doctor to relieve you of that sickness. Can you see the confusion this theology causes? Are doctors enemies of God after all? And if they are, then why do we go to them?
Let us now consider the second case, where you realize that you are now at war and that you are not fighting against flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12). Here you stop being a passive spectator waiting for the day when the Lord will come and receive you into Heaven. You become a soldier and enter the battle fiercely. You come out of the "If it's your will Lord" style of prayer, because now you know what God's will is and you begin to pray with the authority of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. You understand that the whole world is at war, not against flesh and blood, but against evil forces in the heavenly places, and you are not on a vacation trip, but a warrior on the front line.
If your philosophy is that life is a vacation, then you will constantly wonder why all this bad things happens to good people.
But if you understand that you are at war, you do not complain about the problems you face, but you are always grateful to God for every good thing that happens to you. When you go to war and fight the enemy, you are grateful for every time you come back alive, and you stop complaining about your soup getting cold, your order being late, or the mattress on your bed not being soft enough.
Paul in Eph. 6:11 tells us that in war we should put on our armor and not our pajamas.
It is true that the Lord has already defeated the devil, but the war still goes on.
Understanding this reality will remove all complaints from within you and give you answers to big questions like
"why is there all this evil on earth"
and
"why do bad things happen to good people?"
God becomes our precious ally and as we cooperate with Him we fight against the forces of darkness. We stop blaming Him and holding Him responsible for the evil that exists and with His help we fight against this evil.
In the Scriptures there are 37 recorded miracles that Jesus performed. Many of them were healings, and 7 of them were deliverances from demons. The heart of deliverance ministry is God's response to the cry of His people. The Lord said to Moses:
"And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;" Exodus 3:7
and continues in verse 10:
"Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt." Exodus 3:10
Deliverance is not a show to raise social media ratings, nor a means to elevate shelfisness and pride that we have power over other entities. Look what happened to the 70 disciples that Jesus sent out:
"And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject to us through your name." Luke 10:17
and Jesus answered them:
"Rejoice not, that the spirits are subject to you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." Luke 10:20
The ministry of deliverance is a ministry of mercy and compassion. It helps the captives to be free, to come closer to God, and to be able to walk on the path that the Lord has planned for their lives.
Moses did not lead the people of Israel out of Egypt with the intention of writing a book that would become a bestseller, nor to make a movie about his life.
God's mercy and compassion for His people was what made the Lord choose Moses, who himself was one of them, he had also lived in the place to which God had sent him and gave him the strength he needed to face the forces that held his people captive so that he could set them free.
This is precisely the character of the deliverance ministry. Moses did not ask the people to work harder, as if hard work would free them from Pharaoh. If you do not understand the function of the ministry of deliverance, you will always ask those who are bound to work harder, to try harder.
Their problem, you know, is not work based. Their problem is Pharaoh, and Pharaoh doesn't understand hard work.
So Moses' mission was not to whip the people to work harder, but to destroy the forces that made them miserable and free them from the bonds that held them captive.
Let me clarify something here. Hard work is important, as is discipline and discipleship. All of these things have their place in your life, but when a demon is responsible for your problems, discipline, discipleship, counseling, medication, Bible reading and fasting are not going to set you free. Demons must be dealt with. They must be cast out. Moses did not ask the people to pray to God. He went straight to confront the Pharaoh, face to face, and in the end he set them free.
So, in summary, the ministry of deliverance is:
- ministry of mercy and compassion towards people
and
- ministry of dealing with the enemy.
The apostle Paul writes to us:
"But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1Cor. 2:14
Ignorance of the spiritual realm usually causes two reactions. Either it will bring fear, or it will cause irony and mockery. This is because people tend to either fear or mock what they do not understand.
Ιn the next message I will talk about some basic principles that we need to know. They are simple principles that give a better understanding of the ministry of deliverance, because last year there were some events in Thessaloniki that caused many controversies, police arrests and negative comments even in the media that covered the event on television, when a Christian group ministered publicly in the center of the city.
To be continued...
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