There are at least three common mistakes made by deliverance ministers that need addressed. I’m not trying to be critical but helpful. I made a lot of errors in judgment due to ignorance when I started casting out demons. In those days, there were few books on deliverance and no public examples to model after. I was flying without radar and no landing field. But I learned from my errors and adjusted my approach year after year. That’s not saying that I now have the perfect method or all the answers after 50 years of ministry. But today’s deliverance advocates have the internet to disseminate information and share their thoughts and styles of spiritual warfare. They should be doing better, and for the most part they are. But there are still at least three mistakes that are made over and over.
- INNER HEALING IS DELIVERANCE: No. It’s part of the process, but it doesn’t end there. Personally, I place high value on a supplicant’s emotional healing. Often it is the key to casting out demons. But it isn’t the end all, be all. It’s a piece of the puzzle of freedom from demonic bondage, but it can’t be a substitute for expelling demons. Unfortunately, some who value deliverance begin and end with inner healing and think that completes the process. It may be so sometimes, but in my experience it’s usually not conclusive. As I say in the teaching of Bob Larson University, “Demons don’t go until they are made to go.”
- BREAKING GENERATIONAL CURSES MAKES DEMONS LEAVE: This can be true in a small number of what I call “minor possessions.” But the big demons aren’t leaving just because prayers of canceling bloodline evils are uttered. Curse breaking is usually crucial to deliverance, but it isn’t of itself deliverance. It leads to full deliverance. It breaks the legal rights demons have claimed because of ancestral evil. But like I just stated with reference to inner healing, just breaking curses doesn’t make the demons go. They must be forced out, because the generational curses have been revoked. The reasons some demons got there has been removed. But evil spirits still must be sent to the pit of Hell!
- PROPHETIC WORDS ARE THE GUIDE TO DELIVERANCE: Words that those ministering deliverance may feel are prophetically from God shouldn’t guide the process. I believe that deliverance and exorcism must be a fact-based, methodical procedure. That’s what we teach in Bob Larson university. The emphasis in casting out demons should be on objectivity, not subjectivity. Facts are incontrovertible. Spiritual impressions may be helpful, but they may also be misguided by human inspiration. If someone is getting the names of demons and determining their legal rights ONLY by “prophetic words,” that is potentially misleading. Words of knowledge and wisdom (1 Cor. 12:8) are sometimes crucial. I often operate in that spiritual realm as a source of help to get past demonic roadblocks and a stalled deliverance process. We encourage our chartered Do What Jesus Did deliverances teams to follow this practice. If a member of the prayer group feels they have a word from God, don’t interrupt. Write it down and hand it privately to the lead minister who can then determine if and when to resource that information. We’ve found this to be a smoother more biblical model of healing and deliverance.
There is much more to be said, and further illumination is needed with each of these points. But being consistent with prayer procedures will lead to greater success in overcoming the enemy. Those in deliverance must remember, that it is not human effort which ultimately brings freedom. It is the authority of Christ and His work on the cross which prevails. Deliverance is crucial to the Body of Christ, and all who are involved in this much-need ministry need to be wise about how we approach the process. Many tormented people need to know there is hope and freedom in Christ. God give us the grace to do it wisely and effectively. And if you feel tormented by the devil, please contact us immediately so that I, or an Associate Minister, can confront the evil spirits blocking your spiritual destiny.
