Understanding Effective and Personal Deliverance

"God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his
Wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities
in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried
Out through Christ Jesus our Lord.
—Ephesians 3:10–11

The primary reason for Christ’s coming was to redeem mankind, to give him an opportunity to reclaim the eternal life that was lost when man sinned in the Garden of Eden. Christ also came so that the power and authority of God’s kingdom could be restored. God sent his Son to take on the likeness of man. During the thirty-three years he walked on earth, the Son of God demonstrated for us the kind of life we children of God must live in order to be his followers. His was a life of suffering and service. He wants us to emulate his example. We must do the work that he did. (John 14:12)
God is sovereign. His sovereignty and power is not limited. He could have chosen any method to save humanity. However, he chose to send his only begotten son to live, suffer, and finally die on a hill called Calvary for the sins of mankind. Yes, he came and he opened the eyes of the blind, raised people from the dead, fed the hungry, and even cast out demons, but God is bigger than all of that. We must remember that he is sovereign, he is just, and his word is true. He has established his justice from the very beginning of the creation. “If you eat its fruit, you are surely to die.” (Gen. 2:17)
He gave his only begotten son as a just God, and it is man’s own part to invite him into his life through repentance and confession of sins. From the creation, God works with time, and in each generation, he reveals himself in a particular way without changing his ways—not only according to the spiritual need of that generation, but also according to the state of the heart in order to acknowledge the justice and the unsearchable wisdom of God. The result is like the parable of the farmer in the book of Matthew 13. What God has revealed will meet:
a. those to whom the domain of ministry is not unveiled to (2 Cor. 4:3–4)
b. those with the zeal for God but without God’s wisdom (Rom. 10:2–3)
c. those with a wrong interpretation of God’s word (2 Pet. 3:16)
d. those in the broad and easy way (Matt. 7:13)
The results of these are distortion of God’s word, blaspheming of the Holy Spirit, and confusion and division among those called to teach God’s oracles. Whatever our standpoint is, the ministry of deliverance from demonic oppression is complicated for man. It is complicated because it involved direct war between God’s instrument (a mortal blind human being) that must depend totally on God for the power to war against the unseen rulers in the unseen kingdom (demons, evil spirits).
Deliverance is complicated and despised because it is not the principal element of our salvation. Nevertheless, as long as it is ignored or malpracticed, the church of God or let’s say the children of God will remain weak, vulnerable to the devil, and nonaggressive. Consequently, many children of God will remain in bondage, spiritually weak and sick. Such is seen in Luke 13 with the woman whom the devil held captive for eighteen long years. The children of God will not enjoy the freedom and the abundant life that our Lord, Jesus Christ, gave to them until they learn to operate within the leadership of the Holy Spirit—within the will of God according to his calling in their lives, not within the doctrines of men or denominations.
We often hear the testimonies about children of God being delivered. This deliverance, however, is short-lived, and the cycle begins again. Unless we realize that these series of attacks are connected with spiritual bondage, we are doomed to repeat the cycle. We must submit to God and allow him to operate in our lives. Until we do, the agents of darkness will also continue to operate, rule, and occupy prominent positions in our midst.
On several occasions, our Lord Jesus Christ performed deliverance