Paul DeCelles gave this talk at a 1989 Pastoral Training Seminar. He talked about the history of deliverance prayer in the community, about Satan and about how to lead people through the seven steps of deliverance prayer.
Transcript
This document is a direct transcript of an audio recording, and may contain transcription errors and other minor edits for the sake of clarity.
PAUL AND CROWD: [singing]
. . . Lord, oh my soul
Let all that is within me bless his holy name
For he has done great things
He hasâŠ
[Interruption in recording.]
PAUL: . . . Letâs be seated. Let me return now to this other book [Resist the Devil, by Fr. Charlie Harris. Greenlawn Press, 1989]. In the back of it is a section on methods for discernment and deliverance prayer. And I want to talk with you briefly about praying with people for deliverance. And my goal, actually, is to talk briefly about it, and then we should pray, with whatever time we have available after that, just all together here, to take authority over Satan. I think that whenever you talk about Satan and evil spirits, you also should deal with them. Donât bring âem into the conversation unless you intend to consign them to hell.
So, letâs turn toâthose of you who have copiesâpage 91. Let me just point out to you the steps that we use in praying with people for deliverance. We have step one, having to do with humility; step two, honesty; step three, confession and renunciation. Four is forgiveness. Five, an act of faith. And six, we pray with people.
Let me explain a little bit. Iâm not going to follow the text here. Let me just comment on those topics ad lib here.
First thing to realize when youâre dealing with Satan is that he is a creature just like any other creature. Heâs awesomeâthat is to say, insofar as he is a creature. Heâs not omnipotent. He is not God; he has no power comparable to Godâs. He is, however, a fallen angel, of very high status when he was created, very, very brilliant. And one should not underestimate both the brilliance of Satan and his hatred of Godâand his rebellion against God. He has pitted himself against God for all eternity, and also against everything else that God has done. So, Satan desires to destroy everything that has any resemblance to Godâtherefore, us, made in the image and likeness of Godâor anything else that God could conceivably call to hisâon aâto his credit, like the stones, or sky, or the universe in any way. Satan hates all of that.
But, his power is limited. For example, you can thwart Satan with a word alone. You just say no! He cannot make you do anything. So, Satan has no force. He can create a lot of ruckus. He can certainly scare you under some circumstances. He can tend to tryâhe will try to confuse you, tending to cause you to be confused; but he canât confuse you.
That is to say, if you insist on thinking straight, you can think straight. If you thinkâif you insist on knowing the truth, you can know the truth. And so on. That is to say, he actually has no control over your heart. He does not know what goes on in your heart, and he doesnât know your thoughts. Those things are hidden.
Thatâs true. Theyâre hidden. Theyâre Godâs concerns. In fact, nobody else can know whatâs in your heart. Nobody knows the secrets of your heart. Thatâs what Scripture says. And that goes for all created things. Only God knows whatâs in our hearts. By the way, thatâs extremely important, when youâre pastoring people, to remember the other half of that; that is to say, you also really donât know the heart of the person youâre dealing with. You can come to some approximate understanding of it and you can take their word for various things and so on, you can help themâbut no way will you ever be able to plumb the depths of that other personâyour friendâs heart.
Okay, so thatâs why we titled it Resist the Devil, âand he will flee from you,â as Scripture says. We find thatâwe have found that deliverance was one of the most pivotal issues in the formation of the People of Praise community. We had for years beenâsince 196- âearly 1964, thenâin some way trying to form community with lots of different people. For example, in 1964â1963 alsoâFather Harris and Jeanne and I worked together to try to build the kingdom of God. And what we were trying to do had definite community dimensions, and we were talking about how we could build community. Well, so, that continued, of course, and eventually culminated in our making the covenant in 1971, whenâwhich is when we date the actual formation of the community. That is, the first covenant-making was in 1971.
But thereâwe had been trying forâthrough a variety of means to bring about community life. We talked about living in one, you know, cinder-block house all together. That brought tears [Paul and all laugh] from me and my wife. We talked about, you know, just whatâhow could we put our lives in common with each other? And it didnâtâwe never could come up with how to do it. Although we did a lot of things that were effective at bringing people to Christ in the evangelistic ways, we were not able to make a community of friends that would be able to stick together and be one body for his service.
So, it wasnât until the charismatic renewal broke out in our midst in 1967 that we seemed to get a real head of steam up for it. We hadâfor one thing, we had a lot more people coming right away, strangers, so we had the opportunity toâpicking and choosing, you know, people that we would work with and bring in closer and so on. It was really a flood of people all at once. That was wonderful.
And of course we had the spiritual gifts, which gave us a whole new sense of the urgency of what we were doing and the effectiveness of what we were doing. But even then, I think itâs true to say, we wouldâwe seemed to be missing something. And it wasnât until some time after that that we were prayed with for deliverance. And that was theâseemed to be the stumbling block.
Once we were prayed with for deliverance, it spread throughout all of our fellowship, among the people who had been working together for so many years. And real soon after that, we were able to build the community. So, I think one of the thingsâone lesson to draw out of this is to realize just how much Satan opposes community life, and how he will do whatever he can to keep us apart from one another. And we should resist him at that level.
Secondly, another conclusion to draw from it is that community life itself is a great protection against Satan. Thatâs one of the reasons he hates it so much. It is effective at protecting people from Satan.
One time I had a conversation with Derek Prince about it. We wereâwhenever we would get together, Derek would tell some of his wild stories about his deliverance sessions. And oneâhe had told this really outrageous story about someâdemon possession. Some woman he had prayed with dropped on her knees on the stage in front of 10,000 people and he jumped on her back and they were banginâ away. I wasâI gue- âit blew my mind. They delivered her and she fell through the stage and she wasnât hurt. And I donâtâit just wasâit was a very bizarre story! [Paul and all laugh.]
But, soâyou know, I had a few stories like thatâI mean, that type of thing. Andâbut, I mean, every time he spoke about deliverance, he talked about something like that. So, weâre getting in the car; and as we got in the back seat of his car, I said, âDerek, how is it that whenever you talk about deliverance, all these dramatic things happen that you talk about?â
And he told me another story instead of answering my question! [Paul chuckles.] He said something about, âYeah, one time I was praying with this woman; she had this terrible cough,â and on and on. âI prayed with her and she coughed real hard and this phlegm flew out and hit my pants and caught my pants on fire and burned a hole right through my pant leg! [Laughter.] I said, âThatâs what I mean! You know, things like that.â
Soâbut then he said something reallyâI thought, really inspired. He said, âWell,â he said, âyou see, you all come from churches, and your workâyou have this community life which youâre living together,â he said, âand you justâyouâre dealing with people who have been living the Christian life for quite a long time.â He said, âIâm dealing with people who have never heard of Christ, and who have not been in churches; theyâve never received any of the sacraments; they donât know. . .â and on, he said. âAnd the battle with the people youâre dealing with is very much attenuated compared to with [sic] what Iâm dealing with.â
And I think thatâs really true. So, we donât, in factâitâs not that weâre dealing less with Satan, but we donât have quite as many fireworks. And you donât have to conjure up fireworks to get Satan out, okay? Out of our lives.
So, I recommend that you be on the verge of praying with people you pastor, praying with them for deliverance, at the drop of a hat. Be prepared to do spiritual warfare for them and with them. It doesnât have to be a long deal, doesnât have toâyou donât have to light candles and have incense and turn the lights low orâI mean, none of that stuff. Thatâs totally irrelevant. What weâre talkinâ about here is a creature of God, which, by the power of Jesus and in his name, you cast him out. And it doesnât take any music or anything else for that to happen. It just means you take authority over Satan. It doesnât have to be dramatic; can be quite low-key. And be careful not to do it in such a way that you scare the people.
One time we were praying with somebody, and this guy had been âclued in.â He knew how deliverance is supposed to go, I guess. Anyway, when we got to one particular pointâIâm going to change his name, okay, in that story, butâweâre praying with him and I put hands on him. And just asâhe was sitting on a chair similar to these, and he got as stiff as a board and shot off of the chair and hit the floor, like with a thud! And I said, âFor heavenâs sake, Bob, get up! Youâre scaring me!â [Paul and all laugh.]
So, he looked up and he said, âOh, okay, I thought we were supposed to do that sort of thing.â [More laughter.]
Okay, so I really recommend that you make sure that you pray with people about once a year, for sure. And Iâd say, as often as itâs worthwhile.
Now, this isâSatan is extremely attractive to deal with. Thatâs why thereâs such a rise in Satanism. There is power, and there is romance, connected with Satan and Satan worship. And even that can happen with people who pray with people for deliverance. They can get involved with all the intricacies of this soap opera that Satan is conjuring up, okay? So, you should avoid overemphasizing Satan and his activity in the livesâin your life or in the lives of people youâre responsible for. He, Satan, does not, in fact, hide behind every tree. Not everything that goes wrong is immediately Satanâs responsibility, or his causality in any way. Ultimately, of course, itâsâI mean, Godâs in charge of everything. Even the things that seem to go wrong, Godâ couldnât happen if God didnât have them happen.
So, donât overdo Satan. Itâs justâitâs like having an unwanted guest show up at the house. You say, âWell, get out of here,â you know. âIâm going to call the police. Police are on their way. Get out.â And thisâthatâs what you do here, with Satan: âGet out. Jesus is here. You have no right here.â
So, the moral of the story there was: donât get a fixation on Satan. Itâs easy to see him doing everything wrong in the world, and attributing every kind of neurotic impulse that anybody ever hadâyou say, âWell, thatâs the work of Satan.â And itâs not. I mean, a lot of thingsâitâs justâsome of us are just neurotic, and others of us sin. And, you know, we do the bad things; itâs not Satan involved with it. In fact, he didnât even think of it, you know. We do it entirely on our own.
One more thing about Satan Iâd like to say isâIâve mentioned this, Iâm sure, here before. Satan is like a dog on a leash. Or, if you want, a lion, going about the world seeking someone to devour. But heâs on a leash! And itâs almost as though the Lord will walk around with Satan, this lion on a leash, saying, âSic him,â trying to get us to move a certain way. Itâsâyou know, you can read the book of Job that way. Our Lord allowed Job to be tested. And it was only after Job was tested that, in fact, you could discover this flaw in Jobâs heart, which was a major flaw: where he was taught that he had a right to gripe against God. And eventually he repented of that, and his fortunes were restored. So donât think that Satan is just out of control. Heâs not out of control. Jesus is the Lord of the universe, you know. Itâs not as thoughâand weâre not Manicheans; we donât think that thereâs an evil god comparable to our [good] God. Satan is not a god.
Now, we begin with humility.
And what weâre dealing with in humility is this notion that everything depends on God, as opposed to depending on us. Itâs like the first Beatitude in that regard. The moral of the story is this, that âLook, I can afford to be humble, because my Lord is king of the universe.â Itâsâwe areâone image that I like to use when Iâm talking with people about this is: imagine yourself kneeling, praying, by the side of the ocean. And then also imagine yourself looking at yourself from, you know, a hilltop. And you look down here and youâre this tiny, tiny little figure on the edge of this ocean. You donâtâfrom thereâitâs a quiet day, and the waves are not high; and you see this vast, vast ocean as far as you can see, and this tiny little person. Well, thatâs like us in front of the infinity of God. We are just minuscule compared to God. So, we shouldâwe need to keep that in mind.
But the point of that is not to feel like weâre dirt. The point is, God is so great. Thereâs nothing he canât do. So, the flip side of humility is realizing that God is infinitely great. And we donât have to worry, because weâbecause he loves us, and heâs building us into his kingdom.
So, this first humility thing takes aw- âshould take away the âgreat delivererâ mentality: âIâm coming here to slay the evil spirit,â you know. Youâre notâif you enter it that way, youâre a sucker for Satan. You get fooled. It wonât work. You wind up in worse trouble than you were ever in. Youâve got to go to this humbly and cast yourself on the Lord. He will deliver you.
Read the Psalms again, to see how the Lord deals with wickedness. As I said in another talkâI hate to keep repeating myself, but somebody told me Iâm supposed to say things six times before people remember them. And today IâmâIâm five and a half!
[Paul and all laugh.]
But, . . . I just forgot what I was going to say. Soâitâs getting late. Theâso we want toâwe throw ourselves on the Lord. He is a great God. And we are not puffed-up, big Satan-killers. But the Lord is. We are confident sons and daughters of God.
Second step is honesty.
People have a real hard time, when youâre praying with them, saying the truth about things. They will tend to say something like, say, they âfind themselves tempted to steal.â In fact, they have stolen a lot, you know, and they likeâyou know, they like to steal: grand larceny. And so, when you talk to them about things, you know, and you come across something, andâthey might say something like, âWell, you see, I have a proclivity for beautiful art objects.â So you say, âWell, you mean you steal?!â You know? âYeah.â [Paul chuckles.]
So thatâsâso we have a way of trying to put the best face on some things that we do. And we haveâyou have to advise the people that they should be simple and straightforward, [that] this is no bigâyou know, not to be concerned about this.
Also, thereâs great confidentiality, about prayers of deliverance; you must keep that in mind. You donât repeat the stories in any way, shape, or form that they could be attached to anybody, or anybody would know whoâwhat had come out of this. So thatâs a very important thing: just a simple statement. And you can lead them to say, just say, out loud, âI promise to be honest, simple, straightforward.â Then you move on. That doesnât take very long, but it takes a little longer to explain what youâre looking for.
When I was prayed with for deliverance, they said, âNow, whatever comes to mindââthe first time, I mean. They said, âWhatever comes to mind, just tell us what it is.â And as soon as they started praying with me, I got the word âa spirit of confusion.â And I said, there is no such thing. Thatâs ridiculous. I didnâtâto myself. So, they prayed and I prayed; it seemed likeânow, looking back on it, it seemed like they prayed with me for about 30 minutes. And theyâd prayed with Jeanne, maybe, before, and somebody elseâI donât know. But anyway, it was working great for everybody else, but I was a stone! I wasâI mean, I was agreeable to it, I thought, but nothing happened. So, theyâthe pair who were praying with me stopped. And they said, âJust a minute; we gotta go pray about this.â So, they went off a little distance from me, and they were praying and talking. And they came back and they said, âPaul, youâve got a spirit of confusion.â So, I said, âWell, maybe so!â So they prayed. And that was theânot all the confusion you see in me is because of the spirit of confusion. [Paul and the audience laugh.]
But that was a big help, and it did go on from there. So, again, the honesty thing is: urge people to be simple and direct in their comments. And, like, wellâyou can tell them what happened to me, if you want to. That is to say, you know, donât sit on it too long. It doesnât have to be Beelzebub, you know, or something like that, that youâre dealing with.
The third thing is confession and renunciation.
This is a period ofâwhere we take people through a basic understanding that they have to have a right relationship with God, if theyâre going to be delivered of Satan. That is to say, there arenât three stages. Itâs not like you can be Godâs, or you can be Satanâs, or you can be nothing. It isnât quite like that. Thatâsâif youâre not Godâs, you canât be not SatanâSatanâs. Is that clear? And itâsâyou donât have a middle ground to go to. What youâve got to do is: if you want to be free of Satan, you haveâalso have to be righteous. You have to be in good order with God. Soâyou see what Iâm saying? Okay.
So, if thereâs anything in your life, at this moment, which is in fact an impediment to Godâs life in you. . . . For example, someâan unconfessed and unrepented-for abortion; activity dealing with the occultâhaving some kind of relationship, unforgiven and unsought-for forgiveness from God involving in some kind of Satan-worship, or any other kind of adult activityâoccult, I mean. Did I say âadultâ? Iâm sorry. Occult. Thatâs probably the work of the enemy there. Now thatâand not that heâs behind every misspoken word. Butâsoâand there are others that you can put there, like murder, and so on; abortion, I may have mentioned already.
Itâs worthwhile toâespecially today, to ask people what kind of involvement theyâve had with drugs, so that they can be clear on that. A lot of drug behavior is connected with satanic activity. A person who is under the influence of drugs is open toâIâm talking about the hallucinogenic drugs especially, but these mind-altering drugsâopens himself up to all kinds of deception. And Satan can certainly get involved in such a time. And the person should renounce that kind of activity, and also ask God to forgive him for what heâs done.
Even things like ouija boards are important. Most people think ouija boards are just totally innocuous. They arenât innocuous. Theyâwe know of one situation where peopleâsome person played with a ouija board andâwhich led to a sĂ©ance. The sĂ©ance led to an attempted murder, which led to incredible sexual promiscuity and just basically destroyed life in this girl who was 13 years oldâstarted when she was about 13. So, itâs a very serious business.
Iâsome people wonât identify with this so much, but itâs like ouija boards are like sacramentals. They do have an effect. Itâs like holy water or blessed salt or something like that. But theyâre a sacramental of Satan. Thatâs just an occasion for him to get involved with your life. They donâtâitâs not that theyâre efficacious of their ownâon their own sake or, you know, the ouija boardâhaving one in the house means youâve got Satan in your house or something like that. But itâs rather a very convenient occasion in which Satan can get involved.
Sometimes, by the way, ouija board activity gets to be manifestly satanic. On the board, the chip startsâor the little cradle starts moving around by itself, and it leads upâleads to disastrous consequences as it spells out its message. Of course, sĂ©ances fit into that category; people should be led to renounce that.
Let me just say a word about renouncing things; itâll be very helpful. Itâs not only that you should renounce the thing that you did, or the spirit that is besetting you, attacking you; but you also should renounce the pomp that comes with the spirit whoâs attending it. Let me explain what it means. Sometimes, Satan will bring an offer, as he did to Jesus, of great richesâI mean, well-being in this earth. And you can say, âWell, Iâd like to get rid of Satan, but Iâd like to hold on to these âriches.ââ
And thatâs a mistake; thatâs like the âtrainâ of Satan. You know, like, heâs got a cloak, and you want to get rid of him, but you like his cloak, his train. And so if you sit on his cloak, to hold on to that, it will drag you right on out. You donât wantâyouâve got to be in a position that you donât want anythingâeven if it seems to be a good thingâif it comes from Satan. Just donât want any of the attending good things that he promises, which under other circumstances you might be delighted to have. Is that clear? So you get rid of Satan, and all of his benefits.
The fourth step is forgiveness. For forgivenessâ
By the way, I didnât mean that you should pray with people forâto cast Satan out and all of his pomps, benefits, etc., in this step three. Thatâs not what you do there. I justâbecause we were at that point, I wanted to make the point about pomp. But let me go on to step four.
You know that we do not pray with people for inner healing in the People of Praise. There is a great literature available on inner healing. We think that most of the literature on inner healing is off. Itâs got problems. Every now and then they pop up, not the least of which is its original intention, which is that somehow whatâs wrong with you is something like a medical problem that needs healing. Now, this may seem strange to you, because so much of Gregory [Gregory the Greatâs Pastoral Care] talks about pastoral care as though it were a medical art and heâs giving medicines. Butâwhen Gregory does it, it works okay. But when the inner healers do it, it seems to me they miss something.
One time, I had a greatâlong discussion with one of the worldâs greatest inner healers. And we were talking about howâin fact, I was saying how I disagree with this or thatâand he saidâhe trotted out his understanding of what a human being is. A human being is a person whose mind works exactly and simply like a computer, and your past experiences are on tape in your brain, and what you need to do is to go find that segment of the tape and wipe it out, so that you can get on with your life.
Now that, I think, is not the correct view of the way to help a person who has done something bad or who has had a terrible experience in the past. You donât, in fact, wipe it out. In fact, having bad experiencesâthis is a real mind-blower hereâhaving bad experiences is not necessarily a bad thing. It is, in fact, not always a bad thing. In fact, every bad experienceâany bad experience you haveâthat is not the âbad thingâ of the experience. The bad thing is that if you have a hardened heart, if you have resentment, if you criticize God, if you turn against the Lord because of whatâs happened to you, even though it is heinousâand we really hate the evil; thereâs no question about that.
What I want to emphasize here is: even in the most terrible circumstances you can imagine, you still have free will. And the worst thing, the bad thing that can happen, is that you turn against God at that point when you have been so badly hurt. Okay? That. . . . Sinâsinâis the terrible, terrible evil that we have.
Okay. So, at this point we want toâin thisâwe donât pray with people for inner healing. But we do pray with people with step four, which a lot of people will say sure looks like inner healing. And thatâs okay, because it does. If youâre confused, itâdonât worry about it. Itâs thisâwe have here a time where we talk with people about âLetâs recall your pastâ: the past.
And this has to be all voluntary, by the way. We donât want to force anybodyâs conscience and weâre not asking people to commitâto tell us what sins theyâve committed, or anything of the sort. Rather, we say, letâs go back through your life and see if there is any period of time in your life whenâor one event, or some other event, happened, whenâit wasâwhat was done to you was wrong, and what you need to do is forgive that person who did it to you.
And so we lead them through the events that occur to them easily. Weâd say, donât go with a backhoe, and try to dig up all the debris you can in your brain. Letâs just pray gently here and see if something comes to mind. Like, maybe something even happened before you were born, while you were in your motherâs womb. Andânow, that would have to be either revealed by the mother or somebody else. Or it could be revealed by the Lord at that moment that youâre praying. Something might come up, and [weâd] say, âWell, you know, I donât know you, but letâsâwhy donât weâwhy donât you just forgive your mother who fell down the steps, you know, when you were in the womb, and you thought it wasâthe end of the world had come? You didnât know what to make of it.â So, whatever it was. . . .
At any rate, you leadâyou can lead people through their life. This can take quite a bit of time. And help them come to full forgiveness of those things the Lord wants you toâwants them to deal with at this time. SoâIâm not recommending that we do this regularly or enter into any kind of counseling approach to people this way. This is the time to do it. Do it once; do it, sort of, what doesâwhat seems right in the Lord to bring up; what occurs to you by way of suggestions that you might mention to somebody at that moment.
One time we were praying with somebody at this point, and saidâyou know, one of the people who was with usâI think it was Jeanneâsaid, âI see a young boy, outside in thisâin the snow. And this fellow says, âOh, yes,â he said, âthat would be the time when I wasâI forgetâthree years old, when my mother had let me out to play. And Iâand the snowstorm came and she forgot that I was out thereâshe was busy with something elseâand I nearly died.â And it was a very, very big turning point in his life for him to realize that he had, from that moment on, had some bitterness toward his mother, that he had just never forgiven her for that.
Peopleâeverybody has trouble, at least in my experience, forgiving their parents for what theyâve done. Down deep, we donât want to believe that our parents ever did anything wrong to us. I think even those people who hate their parents and say terrible things about them, and lie sometimes even about them, or maybe they even tell the truth about horrible things their parents have done to themâthey still donât want to do that, down deep. Itâs thereâs something built into us about, you know, about honoring our father and mother. And itâs wrenching for us to do that.
The point of it here isâyou do have to tell people: weâre notâwhen you forgive somebody for doing something, youâre not judging that person. Itâs important. Youâre not saying, âThis person did it, and their intention was to leave me out in the cold so I would die and she wouldnât have to put up with me anymore. She hated me all the time anyway. She preferred my sister.â Okay? Nothing like that. Itâs like, âShe did something that was wrong, and I forgive her for whatâfor the wrongdoing. I donât know what her intention was. Heaven only knows. God only knows what was in her heart. But I know that it sure hurt me a lot. And IâI didnât forgive her for it.â
Soâyou get the point of the forgiveness, okay? Itâs not a matter of judging somebody elseâs motives. Or, youâre notâyou donât know their motives; you donât know their heart. And that can happenâit works very well when youâre dealing with parents. You have to explain that to them: that âGee, if your parents did something, you know, well, Iâm not asking you to say your parents are bad people, or they didnât love you. God only knows about that. But if this. . . .â you know. Then they say, âWell, this happened. And. . . .â âWell, you should forgive your mother or your father for what they did there. That was wrong.â So, you can lead them in saying, âIt was wrong,â you know; âyou shouldnât have done that, [and] I forgive you, Mom or Dad.â Okay.
Thatâsâby the way, that language I just used is not involved with necromancy or something. Iâm not conjuring up the spirits of Mom and Dad and talking to âem, okay? Itâs not like that; thatâs just a psychological position for the person to begin to sayâmake it really concrete, you know: âI do forgive you.â They are alive, you know, in eternity, wherever they may be. And itâs important for us to forgive them. Okay? But itâs not a matter of having a conversation with them.
Then letâs go to the act of faith.
You can use Joel 3, which is not referred to here, or Acts, where the prophecy from Joel is quoted, about âEverybody who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.â The word âsavedââyou could use âdelivered,â if you want to. Are you with me? You know what Iâm referring to, Joel 3? âAllâmy Spirit will be poured out in those days on all flesh,â etc., etc.? And it winds up saying, âAnd all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.â So, thatâs what weâre counting on. We have our faith in God; heâs going to save us. So, we just say thatâyou know, claim that. âIâm going to live in faith. Iâm going toâIâm going to act according to that, because I know that when Iâm prayed with, itâs going to work. Iâm claiming my deliverance right now, by the power of the blood of Jesus.â
Then we pray with people.
And thereâs some discussion about how to do that in here. There should be clearly one leader of the prayer. The other people can chime in, but let the one who is leading the prayer be the one who takes charge over the spirit, whatever may be involved in casting it out. Others canâyou can join in, like âfriend of the courtâ or something like that. But donât get the leadership thing confused, because Satan can use that kind of confusion and competition to his advantage.
The people who are assisting the person whoâs leading the prayer should pray there for revelation. God may revealâas I mentioned before, the story about Jeanne getting this vision. Many times, you get visions, you get passages, people will pray for passages and the passages will be right on the money. Andâthatâs not a very good phrase for the situation. Theyâll be exactly accurate, and very helpful. So, they can be a great help, and [their] prayer support, andâmuch more active than that, they should say to the leader, âI thinkâby the way, I got this passage,â or âMy sense is that something like this needs to be done.â So you can getâthe leader can be directed by others there, and take advice and pray, and everybody can pray together.
I strongly recommend that you prepare yourself for spiritual combat by, of course, a holy life. You donât want to just get holy on the day you go pray with somebody. Andâbut you should be, as Scripture says, you know, âSome devils are driven out only by prayer and fasting.â And itâs worthwhile to get yourself in the right frame of mind with regard to the Lord and be preparedâ come to the prayer session prepared.
So, letâsâwhen itâs over, you should instruct the person. . . .
Orâby the way, you should pray withâideally, you should pray with the person one at a time, alone. And two or three people should pray with one person. Donât have a big crowd, because itâs overwhelming and confusing. Two or threeâ[Fr.] Charlie says he recommends threeâis very good. I go along with his recommendation. Two has worked quite well also. One, if you absolutely have to. ButâI wonât get into it, but in most cases you donâtâyou justâyou can always wait a little while, get some help.
When youâre through with the prayer, you should advise the people not to give, for the rest of their life, their testimony about how they were delivered. Thereâs a real tendencyâsometimes, people didânot much happened when they were prayed with for the baptism in the Spirit. But now [after deliverance prayer] they really feel this tremendous relief, and everywhere they go they tell how they were delivered of evil spirits. And thatâs not the best testimony. Itâs not bad, though. I mean, one should be careful not to stifle people on this, because it could be an important thing. People should not gloat about their victory over Satan, because, you know, âLet him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.â But at the same time, people need a little opportunity sometimes to say plainly how they were delivered. And that can be a very good thing for âem. Maybe not in front of the entire community. Maybe just there [at the deliverance session].
Lastly, they should be advised not to see Satan behind every tree.
I donât know, really, if this is good pastoral advice or not. But I usuallyâafter using the Psalms, I pray for some more passages and look for something about how thisâyouâll find a lot of things that are very supportive of a person who has been delivered from the evil one in Scripture. But at the end, especially, itâs good to keep it light. This is not the most important thing. Whatâs happened here, in household terms, is that somebody took the garbage out. Itâs not like you fixed the best dinner in the world. Itâs not like you had the greatest sharing. Itâs just a necessary business that youâve done, and you donât want to spend all your time talking about what was in the trash.
So, itâs a good idea to keep it light. And, Iâd say, at some point have a little fun. Even in the middle of praying with people, there will be lots of opportunities for you to laugh at yourself. And thatâs not a bad idea. Remember that it isnât by your grunting that the evil spirit gets thrown out. Itâs really by the Lordâs power.
So, letâs stand. And letâs take authority over spirits that may have beset us even today, or even now while Iâve talked, and over our homes. And weâll haveâif you can get the floorâweâll have maybe three people or three things that we might pray for in particular that we should deal with. But maybe none, if none comes up. So, letâs just pray now.
[Sounds of people praying in the background]
Lord, just pour out your Spirit on us and strengthen us for this battle.
[Interruption in recording.]
Do we have anything special we should pray against?
I think we should pray against the spirits of envy and of rash judgment.
[Sounds of people praying in the background]
In the name of Jesus we command you, envy, to depart from us. Spirit of envy, follow the command of the Lord God. Go to hell and stay there forever and ever.
[Interruption in the recording.]
. . . Jesus. Amen. Thank you, brothers and sisters. God bless you.
[Applause.]
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