Deliverance – Weird or Wonderful? Part 1

Many people outside the Body of Christ, and not a few within, would regard teaching on deliverance, demons and satanic authority as extreme, outdated, erroneous or just plain weird. To be honest I can fully understand these viewpoints, having occasionally witnessed, over the years, some of the whacky outworking of these concepts. However I have come to believe that true deliverance, exercised under the authority of Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, is one of the most rewarding opportunities that God has given us to be able to witness the coming of His Kingdom on earth.

In today’s scripture Jesus is accused by the Pharisees of carrying out deceptive deliverance on a man who was blind and mute. In response He rebukes them for not seeing that this true deliverance is not the start of some spiritual civil war in the man’s life, but a dynamic demonstration of how the enemy’s destructive domain can be replaced by the life-giving Kingdom of God. It had never occurred before in the history of the world. Satan’s realm of demons was coming face to face with someone, walking the earth, who was in a position of absolute authority over their master.

Remarkably Jesus was planning to delegate specific authority for this astonishing work to His disciples, imperfect men, who were nevertheless willing to walk in obedience to His commands. They discovered that the Holy Spirit, operating through them, consistently exercised authority and power to challenge the demonic realm. Nothing like this widespread divine release of empowerment against the forces of darkness had ever happened before.
What’s even more remarkable is that the Holy Spirit is clearly willing and able to continue this work through the followers of Jesus today!
More about this tomorrow!

Prayer: Father God, I want to be part of Your answer to the spiritual bondage in the world today. I seek to do this only by Your authority, through Jesus Christ. Amen.