Ministering Deliverance

Steps to Freedom -- this is the process we use to get rid of the spirit of darkness. How do we get rid of this? First we have to recognize what it is. We call that "confession." I'm going to confess to God that this is wrong and my involvement in this area is wrong. If a person won't admit it's wrong, you can't go any further than that. You're not going to get free of something they won't admit is wrong. There's got to be a confession before God that this is sin. So you recognize it for what it is. It's sin.

And the second thing you do is revoke the devil's legal right to be there. The enemy got in through open ground that was given through sin or through ancestors or through words or the power of words, the curse of words. Ground was given over then. That's the legal right the enemy has. We're going to ask the Lord to revoke it. We're going to revoke it in the name of Jesus. Now if you're a Christian, you have the right to do so.

And by the way, I cast demons out of non-Christians only when the Lord gives me instructions because He's getting ready to bring them into a relationship with Him. I don't want their house to be empty. Only Jesus can fill the house, so I'm very leery about casting demons out of a non-believer. He may be preparing the way to remove barriers for them to come into a relationship with Him.

You've been bought with the blood. The devil has no right to you. You don't belong to him so you can just rebuke. It goes like this: "Devil, in the name of Jesus, I rebuke your right to this person. I rebuke your right to this area."

And when you're praying with a person, get him to say those words. I do a lot of "repeat-after-me" stuff. Just repeat after me: "In Jesus' name..." "In Jesus' name..." "I take back the devil's right..." "I take back the devil's right..." "That he's gained in this area." "That he's gained in this area." Lead them in prayer in this. You're teaching them how to fight whenever you do this. You're teaching them how to do something.

You're removing the devil's right, you're revoking the devil's legal right. And then you're going to ask God to take it back because you have no authority to do that. God has that authority and He knows what area has been given over. So, you say, "God, will you regain that surrendered foothold or opportunity?" Most people they think, "I admit what it is, I'll try to exercise authority to revoke its right, but Number 3 means I can't return to this. I'm burning my bridge." You need to let them understand that if we're going to get free, they have to burn their bridge to this area. They can't return to it.

We're going to ask God to remove it and make it so severe you will never want to go back to doing this. Are you willing to be that free? I remember one woman I cast a demon out of. There were all these sexual things she was engaged in, in her dreams. She brought it up and she wanted to be free. Whenever it left her, she said, "I'm going to miss that one." I said, "Well, if you had said that before we started this process, I would never have let that thing go." I would never even have dealt with that one because I guarantee, she's going to be harassed in that area.

Sometimes people get attached to these demons and view them as if they were friends. They don't know what they're going to be like. They are so attached, this is so ingrained in a person and that's one of the reasons they're so afraid, because they don't know who they are. If this is gone, they don't know who they'll be and that's a frightening thing. They become friends with their areas of bondage. Sometimes their identity is so wrapped up in it.

God honored the authority that was given to rebuke the spirit and then we're going to remove that stronghold. You're going to confront that stronghold with the truth of God and it's the truth that will set you free. You're going to confront that lie with truth. Some of those lies are deeply imbedded and you're going to confront them with the truth and the Word of God is your main source of truth.

When a person gets deliverance, don't be surprised if that person is brain-dead for a few days. They will walk around shell-shocked, as if they were emptied out. They will have a sense of emptiness, like something is gone and there's a void or a gap. You need to warn them that when they leave you they'll feel this way. You need to tell them to fill themselves up. Suggest they go down to a Christian bookstore, buy some good worship tapes to listen to. Fill themselves up with worship and praise. Get into the Word of God. Move into the Gospels, read about Jesus, their identity in the Lord. Fill themselves up with the Psalms. Just have them begin to fill themselves up with God, because there's going to be an emptiness when they finish this process.

But, you begin to rebuke things with the Word of God. And, by the way, if you're not in the Word of God, reading the Word of God, you're going to have a hard time speaking the Word of God to anything. When Jesus spoke the Word of God when the devil confronted Him, He had a backlog of scripture already committed to memory and God pulled the right ones out that He needed at that moment. God can and may give you scripture you never memorized. But usually He won't do that if you've not already taken the time to memorize a lot of other ones. And if you will, then He'll give you what you need in the moment as you need it. If you're not in the word, you're not going to have that background of truth to confront the darkness.

You've got to speak the truth into it. You're ministering to a person and then the words that are coming on them, the curse of words: "I'm nothing," "I'm no good," "I have no value." You can speak the Word of God: I made you, I created you, I knew you, Psalm 139, "From birth, I have known you. I formed you, I shaped you." You just speak the word and you confront this with truth.

And then, the last thing is that you've got to rebuild the area with a Godly stronghold. That's probably one of the most important things and it gets omitted because people say, "I get free," and that's it. Fill up the house! You fill up the house not only with praise and worship and spending time with God and entering into His presence, you fill the house with a Godly stronghold that's opposite of that. I did a sermon series years ago on when you tear down a stronghold of hate you have to build a stronghold of love. If you tear down a stronghold of bitterness, you rebuild it with a stronghold of compassion. You have a stronghold of fear, you have to rebuild it with trust or faith.

Everything has an opposite. Whatever is removed from that person, you must seal that deliverance with rebuilding a Godly stronghold in its place. Replace self-hate with a self-love that's not a conceited love. The Bible says to love your neighbor as you love yourself. You're going to have to love yourself. I'm not talking about the conceited, self-indulgent type of love. I'm talking about being willing to accept that God made you, created you, designed you type of love and that must overcome self-hate.

You have to study about that. You have to learn the scriptures because you are going to be attacked over and over. You have those thought patterns that have been in your mind and ingrained in those areas and you need to confront those thought patterns. Build a Godly stronghold that has a higher pattern of living -- it gives you authority. Rebuild with a Godly stronghold.

We're destroying speculations in every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we're taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And it would also fit for rebuilding the Godly strongholds for occupying the land.

People often ask me if you can go through the process alone, by yourself. Sure you can. Or for yourself, sure you can. But if you hit a roadblock where you can't get past something, that's where you call on the other people to pray for you. I would encourage you to do it by yourself. I would encourage you to begin today.