Degrees of Deliverance
Studying the Deliverance Ministry of Jesus
There is a new-found interest in deliverance these days, and the need for it is only going to increase. I am glad to see the church grappling with this reality and applaud the emphasis on the authority of the believer, but I must admit that I am often disturbed by some of the extremes in deliverance teaching.
Just as there are degrees of light and darkness, there different degrees of deliverance. It’s not a single black or white issue. Anytime we try to treat deliverance in a one-dimensional way, we will get into trouble, both theologically and in our experience.
As a pastor, I am always concerned when I see deliverance promoted as a cure-all or a quick-fix for every problem we have, avoiding any need for a consistent, disciplined, walking out of our problems with the Lord.
While deliverance and warfare are an integral part of the gospel it should never become an isolated entity. There should be a proportionate blend of evangelism, healing, and teaching, as we see in the ministry of Jesus, but those who major on deliverance rarely are balanced.
When I was a young disciple, I had been used by the Lord to help people become free from demons. As a result, I set out to study the subject of deliverance and warfare in scripture in order to lay a biblical foundation under my experience.
I felt impressed by the Lord to write out everything I believed. I took some lined paper and began to list them all in bullet-point form. I felt that part of His challenge to me that I needed to find New Testament verses to support each of the doctrines and principles I had picked up along the way.
As I began to itemize these beliefs, I found out that some basic things I had embraced as biblical didn’t hold up to this test. I was surprised to find a few things I had been taught that I could not find in the Bible at all. I began to see how many of these “truths” were nothing more than Pentecostal traditions and Charismatic superstitions!
For the second part of the challenge, I felt I was to separate these passages of scripture and look for common denominators in each of them in the ministry of Jesus. Finding these would help set the parameters on how I was to administer deliverance. Often when the subject of deliverance or warfare was taught, it seemed so vast and nebulous, but as I studied each example found in scripture in this way, I was surprised to find how uncomplicated deliverance really was.
This study will help you understand how to cast out demons and to know what we are dealing with. I have never seen an approach to this subject like this before or since. It not only clarifies the subject, but I found it caused my faith to increase and gave me more confidence in dealing with the devil.
ABOUT PENN CLARK
God has given Penn a unique ability to communicate His grace in a way that is both profound and practical. From the very beginning, Penn has been a diligent steward of the revelations he has been given, writing them out, polishing them, and making them available to others. Now, with more than seventy books available from a lifetime of study, each book is an example of how to handle the Word of God with integrity. To learn more about Penn, go to www.pennclark.net or www.pennclark.study.