I’ve just returned from our mission to Africa, and I am struggling with the same feelings I always have when I return from ministry overseas. Of course, it’s good to be home, and I’m anxious to resume my normal schedule of seminars and Personal Spiritual Encounters. But my heart aches for the church in America that has shunned the ministry of deliverance. Get beyond the shores of America and people are so much more open to the reality of the spirit world of evil. Day after day, during this most recent outreach, I ministered to Africans who had no problem defining their issues as being demonic. May times they would say almost the same words, “The doctors say my problems are physical or mental, but they haven’t found a diagnosis or a cure yet. But I know it’s demons that are tormenting me.” And in about 80% of the cases, they were right.
The many days I spent in ministry in Africa were refreshing. The people seeking help manifested their evil spirits within minutes of prayer. I didn’t have to prepare them, coax them to yield to supernatural ministry, or give long explanations of what might happen. Repeatedly, I heard them all say, “I’m ready. Let’s do it. I can feel the demons moving inside me. They torment me with dreams, I see them. They crawl on my body. I want them out!”
Americans don’t have fewer demons, they just have more sophisticated rationales for explaining away the truth about the source of some suffering. And they have been brainwashed by preachers and teachers who know nothing of the deliverance ministry but claim to be experts on all things demonic. Hour after hour, in dozens of sessions in Africa, I had the privilege of seeing desperate and tortured people receive the healing of Jesus. This could and should happen in America. We don’t have less demonic bondage, just more clever ways of avoiding the truth about our spiritual condition. America needs deliverance, and the longer we avoid the reality, the longer Christians suffer needlessly. We need not be imbalanced and blame everything on the devil to accept the idea that at least some of the spiritual and moral issues we face as a nation will never be solved without spiritual warfare.
An encouraging word: ALL HAVE SINNED
Romans 3:23 is one of the first Bible verses that most new Christians learn It is so simple and direct, and so oft quoted, we may forget the simplicity of its proclamation. ALL have sinned. You, me, everyone who has ever lived, going back to Adam. Yet today one hardly hears the word “sin.” It’s not spoken in polite social circles, in Hollywood or the hall of congress, and even some pulpits. But we can never be free from sin until we admit that basic fact: every human being from Pope to potentate, pastor to penitent, has sinned. The personal recognition of evil in one’s own life is the first step to salvation and admitting the need of a Savior. Have you acknowledge that you have sinned?
Bob Larson has trained healing and deliverance teams all over the world to set the captives free and Do What Jesus Did® (Luke 4:18). You can partner with Bob and support this vision to demonstrate God’s power in action by calling 303-980-1511 or clicking here to donate online.
