What about the Apostles in the Bible?
The book of Acts does record the Apostles casting out demons that were oppressing people. It even says in verse 8 of chapter 6, “For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice came out of many who were possessed.” That sounds like deliverance to me is it not? The same can be said about the ministry of Jesus. He also, many times delivered many from demons. However, let me hold your mouth this way: in Scripture, there is a clear difference between casting out demons and deliverance. Deliverance is a permanent act of rescuing someone from danger. To quote Colossians 1:13 again, “God has delivered us from the powers of darkness and conveyed us to the kingdom of His dear Son.” On the other hand, casting out demons is what we see our Lord and His disciples doing, which was an occasional and temporal removal of an evil spirit indwelling an unbeliever. Occasional in the sense that it wasn’t a ministry of casting out demons. In fact, Paul allowed a demon-possessed girl to follow them for days before he rebuked it because it wasn’t their priority to cast out demons. Theirs was to permanently deliver people through the preaching of the Gospel. Also, the casting of demons was temporal in the sense that after the demon was cast out, as long as the person remained unsaved through the Gospel message, the demon would return to its house with seven devils more evil than itself (that is what our Saviour taught). Therefore, what we see in the New Testament was not a deliverance ministry that was advertised every day all over the city as we see today, but it was simply a once-in-a-while casting out of unclean spirits. Do you see my point?
The preaching of the Gospel replaced!
This misunderstanding of the difference between deliverance and casting out of demons is what has given rise to this dramatic Deliverance Ministry, which outright replaces Bible teaching and preaching from the centre stage. The original Bible message says that people need to get right with God, hence they desperately need that Word that has power to save those who are sinners and to sanctify them who are saints. Yet the Deliverance Ministry says, no; the problem with people is that they have spirits that hinder their marriages and successes, all they need is a powerful minister to unleash the power of God upon their lives by laying hands on them. In that world, what need is there to teach the Bible verse by verse and chapter by chapter?
Sin is excused as demon possession
I hope I am not suggesting that there are no demonic spirits that trouble people, because they are. Demon possession is as old as mankind itself. However, I think I have already emphasized enough that Christ automatically delivers Believers from demons at the moment of their salvation – through the hearing of the Gospel. My issue is that the deliverance ministry is actually a perversion of the Christian Faith that is now even used as an excuse for sins that can be repented of. Those with marriage problems are told that the problem is not with them but it is “spiritual husbands” that trouble them. Yet these can be solved through simple Bible counselling such as, “Sir, do you love your wife as Christ loved the Church, are you prayerfully working in that direction? Mam, are you submissive and respective to your husband as the Church does to Christ?” Friends, it is that simple! It is no help to keep using spirits as an excuse for our disobedience to God. These deliverance ministries actually strengthen the hands of the evil men instead of turning them to the light that transforms. Have you noticed that those who regularly visit these deliverance services actually come back the same, no matter how many services they attend? Still having marriage troubles, still indulging in sexual immorality, and pornography, still unforgiving and unloving to their neighbours. Something is definitely wrong there! Yet, if people were brought under the true Gospel message that calls for repentance and demands dedication to God and godliness, we will surely see a change in the world around us.
The conclusion is simple: Let us return to the Scriptures. Let us invest our ministries not in gimmicks, games and useless drama but in the power of the preached Word. The more we look down upon that which the Holy Spirit works with the most; the Bible, the further we go from the truth and the more stupid we look in the eyes of the world. Yet if you as a minister, you open your Bible, you prayerfully study it and you go on to faithfully and humbly proclaim it, guaranteed you will see the hand of the Lord beginning to change your people. It begins with you.
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