Ephesians 6:12
I do believe that demons are real and that our fight is with them.
Casting out demons was a regular feature of the ministry of Jesus Christ and that of the Apostles.
Luke 10: 17 and 20
Demons submitted to the disciples but Jesus Christ warned them of what they actually should rejoice in.
The ‘Deliverance Ministry’ focuses on casting out demons from believers. This led me to ask to basic questions and Search the Scripture for answers:
Q 1: Can an evil spirit and the Holy Spirit dwell within the same person at the same time?
Q 2: Are there any clear cases of believers being processed or released from demon procession in the Bible?
1 Samuel 16:14
Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him
Here we find that the Holy Spirit and the evil spirit did not live in the same person at the same time. We also note that the evil spirit was actually sent from the LORD.
In Jobs case we find that God permitted satanic attack within limits set by Him. Ultimately God accomplished His higher purposes in the process.
2 Corinthians 12: 1-10
Here we find Paul referring to the thorn as a messenger of Satan. We may assume it was a demon attack. Paul was NOT delivered from it despite his repeated requests. It was permitted by God to accomplish Gods higher purpose.
So what I find in Scripture is that instead of believers becoming victims of demons, demons were used by God to accomplish His higher purposes in and through them.
As a believer, we can therefore not only be assured of angelic service/protection, but also that if ever God allows satanic attack on believers, it will not only be within God set limits, it will ultimately accomplish some of Gods higher purposes in /for and through us.
1 Corinthians 5:4, 5 and 1 Timothy 1:19, 20
Here we find the church handing over the believer to Satan for his ultimate good. So not only is there NO evidence in the New Testament of believers being delivered from satanic attack, on the contrary, what we do have some evidence is just the opposite: believers being delivered TO Satan!
These truths elicit our praise to God for the fact that Satan is ultimately under Gods control and at Gods disposal to be used unawares to accomplish Gods own higher purposes.
In Mark 8:33 Jesus Christ rebukes Peter: ‘Get behind me Satan!’ This is best understood in its context. Peter was trying to influence Jesus against the very purpose of God for which He had come into this world – the Cross. ‘Behold that Lamb of God that taketh the sin of the World’
Deliverance Ministries claim Demonic entrance into a believer through various means. What does the Bible state regarding two most likely means of demon entrance?
# 1: Food that has been offered before idols
1 Corinthians 10: 18-29
Actually what this passage makes clear is that I need not be so cautions, I can just go ahead and eat what has been placed before me without asking questions. Verse 29 makes clear that if I do have to abstain from the food that has been offered before the idols it would be for the one reason of regarding by brothers’ conscience, not to prevent demonic entry. If demonic entry was possible through food that had been offered before idols then, eating that food would have been banned altogether in Scripture.
# 2: Demonic entrance through Generation transfer
The natural consequences of the sins of one generation may be carried over to the next generation.
Genetic tendencies may be carried on from one generation to the next, but these are not demons
Ezekiel 18:1-4; 5-9; 10; 11-13; 14-20
Even if there are other passages that suggest transference of generational sin in the Old Testament, this was specifically got rid of under the New Covenant
Jeremiah 31: 29-31, v 34 B
Galatians 3:13: Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the LAW
Psalms 91:9-11
Numbers 23:23
Whatsoever happens for a believer, the believer ought to say it is Gods work.
General Warnings this subject
1 Timothy 4:1
But the spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons
1 Timothy 5:15 Some have already gone after Satan
1 Corinthians 12:10 We need the gift of discernment to distinguish between spirits.
2 Thessalonians 2:9 In the latter days satanic activity is going to increase
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12
If we don’t proactively love the truth, we will be made to believe the lie.
A number of ministries are mushrooming with the offer of providing inner healing and deliverance for believers in Christ Jesus. It would be wise for us to be like the believers at Berea, going back to the Scriptures to find out if this is really what the Bible teaches, especially when there is so much warning in the Scripture on this subject. Be cautious!
26 July 2009
Back to His Word, Back to His Fold
This testimony of mine was published in the first issue of Bible Truths (the magazine of the Local Church) in November 1984 and mentions how the first meeting of the Local Church in Kerala began on the first Sunday of January 1980.
Sixteen years of my life were lived on the wrong side of the cross, and about eight I have lived on this side with Christ. I can honestly say that the joy and pleasure I have experienced in any month of these eight years outweigh all the joy and pleasure that I could squeeze out of those first sixteen.
I was born and brought up in a Mar Thoma Church background. After my conversion I continued to be an active member in the church’s youth organ. Very soon, however, I was made a student official in the interdenominational organisation – Union of Evangelical Students of India (commonly referred to as EU). It was here that I began to use my God – given abilities. These abilities were soon recognised by the senior members and thus I was pushed higher up into the officialdom of the EU. This gave me the opportunity of organising several student retreats and conferences. Before long I stopped going to the Mar Thoma Church because I did not get the spiritual food and fellowship that I had begun to receive from the EU.
God was using the conferences of the EU to bring many non-believers to receive Christ. However we were unable to provide effective follow-up. This concerned me very much. There was in me an unsatisfied barrenness that haunts one who brought new souls to birth and left them there. The inner voice kept saying “don’t bring spiritual babes to birth and leave them to die for lack of nourishment”. I knew that, if necessary, the Holy Spirit could see to the follow up once a man was converted. However, i sometimes used to think whether a man should lead another to a decision for Christ if he was not adequately prepared to follow him up.
It was in these circumstances that I began searching the Word of god to see if there was in it the secret of effective follow up. I found that in the New Testament days, when a person received Jesus Christ, he was first baptised and then he devoted himself to the apostles’ teachings, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2: 41,42). I also found that the apostles were careful to teach ALL that Jesus had commanded; not keeping from the young believers anything that would be profitable for their spiritual life. (Acts 20: 20, 27 Cp with Mathew 28:20 a). It dawned to me that these practices were the key to effective follow up. But I realised that these practices would not be possible within the framework of an interdenominational organisation which is bound to keep silent on several vital issues so as to retain it’s inter denominational stand. Where then could they be put to practice?
When Jesus Christ returned to heaven leaving a few disciples to begin the huge task of evangelising their world, what organisation did He leave for them? This was a crucial question. For if I followed something other than what Christ has set up, would I not be saying that my way was superior to His, that in this age I was wiser than Christ, more foresighted?
Once again I turned to the Word of God which I had come to hold as the final authority on matters such as this. My search revealed that the only form of organisation that the early believers used was the local church. The fact that there were no organisations other than the local churches was sobering. I understood that the various practices that were key to effective spiritual growth and follow up could be practised in the framework of a local church. Baptism, breaking of Bread, discipline for erring believers, scriptural leadership, the place and role of women in the church and a number of other important things could be taught and practised only in a church situation. In other words, the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) could be practised only in the “household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth” (1Timothy 3: 15b)
But alas! When I looked around at the various churches I could not see a scene similar to that which I found in the churches of the New Testament. What I saw was lukewarm ‘evangelical’ churches without vision and passion. Most of the churches had set aside the commandments of God in order to keep the traditions of man. The churches have failed and that is why Para-church organisations have come up. But is it not possible to have churches similar to those that existed in the New Testament days? If it was possible the, it should be possible now. When one has crept along for many years with conventional Christianity, the normal New Testament Christianity seems to be so abnormal because we are so sub-normal. We have seen the principles on church life in the Word for years, but somehow concluded that they were too extreme and impracticable for the complicated age in which we live. And so we surrendered to the lukewarm condition of today’s churches. Is it necessary to do so? I didn’t feel it was. Nor did a few like minded believers.
On the first Sunday of January 1980 we gathered as a local church. We were only four in number. We were set to demonstrate that the biblical principles of church and discipleship were not only highly practicable but that they were the only terms that would result in the accomplishment of the Great Commission – Mathew 28: 19-20.
A few years have gone by. It has been a great joy to see more and more believers begin practising the scriptural pattern of local church and thereby mature in their spiritual lives. It has been so thrilling to live a life by convictions instead of being controlled by circumstances and to watch God honouring those who honour His Word.
A ‘perfect’ local church is not what I anticipate. What I desire to see is local churches that seek to obey to the best of their ability the pattern set in the New Testament.
Another denomination is not what I want. I want that each local church be independent and directly accountable to God and His Word.
A local church that would last for all the generations to come is not my purpose. If the next generation finds that we have failed in some areas, it should seek to establish a local church that is more Scriptural.
On the night before we first started meeting as a church, these were the words I wrote in my diary: “I know not if the blessing sought will come in just the way I perceive but I leave my prayers with Him alone whose will is wiser than my own. Yet my prayer is that I may walk by faith and not by sight that I may not fear when I should aspire and falter when I should climb higher. I am aware of the hundred and one obstacles but they do not keep me from proceeding – proceeding not on my strength but on the Lords. Anything new will first be totally rejected before it is fully accepted.”
Sixteen years of my life were lived on the wrong side of the cross, and about eight I have lived on this side with Christ. I can honestly say that the joy and pleasure I have experienced in any month of these eight years outweigh all the joy and pleasure that I could squeeze out of those first sixteen.
I was born and brought up in a Mar Thoma Church background. After my conversion I continued to be an active member in the church’s youth organ. Very soon, however, I was made a student official in the interdenominational organisation – Union of Evangelical Students of India (commonly referred to as EU). It was here that I began to use my God – given abilities. These abilities were soon recognised by the senior members and thus I was pushed higher up into the officialdom of the EU. This gave me the opportunity of organising several student retreats and conferences. Before long I stopped going to the Mar Thoma Church because I did not get the spiritual food and fellowship that I had begun to receive from the EU.
God was using the conferences of the EU to bring many non-believers to receive Christ. However we were unable to provide effective follow-up. This concerned me very much. There was in me an unsatisfied barrenness that haunts one who brought new souls to birth and left them there. The inner voice kept saying “don’t bring spiritual babes to birth and leave them to die for lack of nourishment”. I knew that, if necessary, the Holy Spirit could see to the follow up once a man was converted. However, i sometimes used to think whether a man should lead another to a decision for Christ if he was not adequately prepared to follow him up.
It was in these circumstances that I began searching the Word of god to see if there was in it the secret of effective follow up. I found that in the New Testament days, when a person received Jesus Christ, he was first baptised and then he devoted himself to the apostles’ teachings, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer (Acts 2: 41,42). I also found that the apostles were careful to teach ALL that Jesus had commanded; not keeping from the young believers anything that would be profitable for their spiritual life. (Acts 20: 20, 27 Cp with Mathew 28:20 a). It dawned to me that these practices were the key to effective follow up. But I realised that these practices would not be possible within the framework of an interdenominational organisation which is bound to keep silent on several vital issues so as to retain it’s inter denominational stand. Where then could they be put to practice?
When Jesus Christ returned to heaven leaving a few disciples to begin the huge task of evangelising their world, what organisation did He leave for them? This was a crucial question. For if I followed something other than what Christ has set up, would I not be saying that my way was superior to His, that in this age I was wiser than Christ, more foresighted?
Once again I turned to the Word of God which I had come to hold as the final authority on matters such as this. My search revealed that the only form of organisation that the early believers used was the local church. The fact that there were no organisations other than the local churches was sobering. I understood that the various practices that were key to effective spiritual growth and follow up could be practised in the framework of a local church. Baptism, breaking of Bread, discipline for erring believers, scriptural leadership, the place and role of women in the church and a number of other important things could be taught and practised only in a church situation. In other words, the “whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) could be practised only in the “household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth” (1Timothy 3: 15b)
But alas! When I looked around at the various churches I could not see a scene similar to that which I found in the churches of the New Testament. What I saw was lukewarm ‘evangelical’ churches without vision and passion. Most of the churches had set aside the commandments of God in order to keep the traditions of man. The churches have failed and that is why Para-church organisations have come up. But is it not possible to have churches similar to those that existed in the New Testament days? If it was possible the, it should be possible now. When one has crept along for many years with conventional Christianity, the normal New Testament Christianity seems to be so abnormal because we are so sub-normal. We have seen the principles on church life in the Word for years, but somehow concluded that they were too extreme and impracticable for the complicated age in which we live. And so we surrendered to the lukewarm condition of today’s churches. Is it necessary to do so? I didn’t feel it was. Nor did a few like minded believers.
On the first Sunday of January 1980 we gathered as a local church. We were only four in number. We were set to demonstrate that the biblical principles of church and discipleship were not only highly practicable but that they were the only terms that would result in the accomplishment of the Great Commission – Mathew 28: 19-20.
A few years have gone by. It has been a great joy to see more and more believers begin practising the scriptural pattern of local church and thereby mature in their spiritual lives. It has been so thrilling to live a life by convictions instead of being controlled by circumstances and to watch God honouring those who honour His Word.
A ‘perfect’ local church is not what I anticipate. What I desire to see is local churches that seek to obey to the best of their ability the pattern set in the New Testament.
Another denomination is not what I want. I want that each local church be independent and directly accountable to God and His Word.
A local church that would last for all the generations to come is not my purpose. If the next generation finds that we have failed in some areas, it should seek to establish a local church that is more Scriptural.
On the night before we first started meeting as a church, these were the words I wrote in my diary: “I know not if the blessing sought will come in just the way I perceive but I leave my prayers with Him alone whose will is wiser than my own. Yet my prayer is that I may walk by faith and not by sight that I may not fear when I should aspire and falter when I should climb higher. I am aware of the hundred and one obstacles but they do not keep me from proceeding – proceeding not on my strength but on the Lords. Anything new will first be totally rejected before it is fully accepted.”
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