The Biblical Basis for Deliverance
Today I want to explain what is deliverance and why you need to walk in your freedom given by Jesus. Deliverance is a term that is rarely used in the church today. It refers to the permanent removal of demonic spirits – unseen, evil entities without physical bodies – that deceive, influence, enslave, torment and sicken people. In the New Testament, we read, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38).

When Jesus brought the kingdom of God to earth, He demonstrated that the ministry of deliverance always accompanies the presence of the kingdom. Deliverance is a manifestation that God’s kingdom has arrived in people’s lives and in the lives of their communities, cultures and nations. When we minister the kingdom of God, we establish the kingdom of God in and among human beings.

When most believers manifest a problem in their minds, wills, and/or emotions, their spiritual leaders merely counsel them, rather than discerning where there may be a demonic origin to the problem and setting people free by either casting out the demons or rebuking the influence of the demons in their lives.

Most believers love Christ but, for lack of knowledge, are still living in captivity.

Many people assume that after they are born again and filled by the Holy Spirit, there is no possible way for them to be influenced by a demon. Such an idea is completely false. In fact, their belief in this lie is what keeps many of them in bondage. We have seen, heard, and experienced the need for deliverance in born-again Christians. We know that even after a person is saved, he must often also be set free

To better understand why deliverance is needed, we must recognize the nature of human beings and how they were created. The apostle Paul wrote, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). It takes spirit, soul, and body to make a whole person. Since each part of our makeup is unique, it needs to be individually treated, healed, and/or set free when it is demonized.
 

– The spirit is the inner man, or the “spiritual man.” It is where God comes to dwell when we are born again – it is the seat of His presence.

– The soul is the seat of our will, with which we make decisions. The emotions and the mind (intellect) are aspects of the soul also.

– The body is the dwelling place of the spirit and the soul, and the means by which these two unseen parts of our being express themselves in the visible world as they manifest their uniqueness and their desires.

Thus, Man is a spirit with a soul who dwells in a physical body.

When we are born again, it is our spirit – not our soul or our body- that was instantly regenerated. In order for God to “sanctify us completely,” our body often still needs to be healed, and our soul still needs to be renewed and set free from the effects of sin and Satan. In other words, the salvation and the transformation that took place in our spirit were immediate, forming a new creation (2 Cor 5:17)-but our soul is still corrupted by the sinful nature and needs to be progressively released and transformed. In our next Devotion we will look at : Can a Believer be Demon Possessed?