Deliverance. It's the part of ministry that often gets overlooked. It's misunderstood and often disguised. It's wrapped in pretty packages such as healing services, freedom encounters or chain breaking services, just to get churches to open their doors to it. Everyone wants that instant freedom, that power encounter, and to experience that euphoric presence of the Lord. Yet, many don't recognize the spiritual warfare of every day life for what it is. Many won't crack their bibles open on any day other than Sunday morning. Some go weeks, months or years without reading a single word of it for themselves. Then they constantly wonder why they're struggling. Why the drinking, smoking or partying isn't enough. Why they still feel empty and isolated, even when they are in a crowded room. They wonder where their breakthrough is. They wonder why the Lord feels so far away. He isn't the one that moved. He isn't the one that withdrew His hand. He isn't the one searching for fulfillment in the pleasures of this world.
Others dive in to His presence, into His word and eat it up every minute of the day. Some attend every revival service, every worship service, every encounter service, every deliverance service and never miss church on Sunday's. They put all of their effort into chasing their next breakthrough, their next step in ministry or their next prophetic word. Yet they feel bound, held back and unable to get through the brick wall that seems to surround them during every day life. They focus selfishly on what they are getting from the Lord, not realizing that it's the laying down of our flesh at His feet in full surrender that He desires. He's not interested in how many nights you spend in church. He is interested in how many minutes you spend seeking His presence, His truth and letting Him speak to your heart as you spend time in His word. He's not interested in the number of people you pray for, or how free you feel, He is interested in building a relationship with you. A real relationship. He want's to share your days with you. He wants to be in every moment. When we compartmentalize the Lord, shoving Him into time slots, or Sunday services, we are missing out on so much more of what Jesus died for us to have.
As I was praying last night, I was seeking out insight on deliverance. I was asking the Lord about freedom and why some people seem to grab ahold of their encounters and why others seem to remain stagnant or stuck. Then the Lord showed me a junk drawer. We all have one, but we never really remember how it got there, or what all it contains. We don't remember the first thing that we put in there. We don't remember the last thing we put in there. We just know that there are random pieces of 'junk" that we will need "one day" and we shove them all in that drawer and shut it. We might open it now and then, looking for something random to use. Sometimes we need the toothpicks, the batteries, or the birthday candles; but almost all the time, the other things that have been tossed in that drawer remain untouched for years.
The Lord put on my heart that deliverance is like cleaning out the junk drawer. Demonic influences that have slowly built up and bound you over the years, feel similar to the comfort of the things that you will use "someday" that get set aside, left in the junk drawer for later. Healing often comes in layers. Like that once a year spring clean when you open that junk drawer and find a few things to throw out. Then you justify hanging on to other junky things because you will need them "someday". It's the same as hanging on to bitterness, unforgiveness, or strife because you feel this hidden need to speak about it again one day. You need those memories to justify how you feel, your emotions or your anger, so you tuck it all away because you feel a "right" to hold on to these things. Whether it was past abuse, past sins that you are ashamed of, curses spoken over you, or past soul ties that you aren't willing to let go of; you tuck it all away because you feel it's not relevant and it can't be related to what's currently holding you back. A rejection from childhood can't possibly be related to anxiety and perceived rejection that you are feeling now. So you toss it back in the junk drawer and fumble around to find something else. You pull out drinking, xanax, or new age techniques that still leave you with those bad days. You struggle with those days where everything seems to overwhelm you at once. You chalk it up to a bad day, a bad week, or some weird planet going into retrograde, and you never once think of taking that entire junk drawer and emptying it out at the feet of Jesus and letting him throw it all away for you.
Let me tell you that deliverance is like cleaning out the junk drawer. Inner healing targets everything that you have put in there. It will take you back to the very first thing that you put in that drawer and help you throw it away. It targets the clutter, it reveals the doors that were opened and the invitations extended in the past that invited oppression to take it's place in your life. We want to target the anxiety and the depression, yet we don't target the invitation to demons that was extended years ago. We want to cut down the tree without digging up the roots. We revel in the supernatural ghost hunting shows, the psychics and the tarot cards, yet we ignore the spiritual warfare that the Bible clearly speaks about. There are demons that are behind the curtain, pushing the buttons and pulling the levers. Whether you want to believe it or not. We don't recognize in the natural the doors to oppression that have been opened in the past. We don't realize that there are things in this spiritual war that attack our mind, will and emotions daily. We don’t realize how our freedom is tied to emptying the junk drawer and tossing it all out. Every hurt, trauma, sin, soul tie, curse or involvement in witchcraft that you’ve experienced in the past is demonically woven into this web of emotional entanglement, oppression and bondage that keeps you from feeling the freedom of a clean slate. The Lord died for your freedom. He gave us the Holy Spirit to help us identify the junk that we are holding onto for later, to empower us to heal the sick, to cast out demons and to declare the truth of the gospel. He died for us to have the fruits of the spirit, to experience love and to walk in the power of the Holy Ghost. He died for us to be delivered from the bondage of spiritual warfare, demonic oppression and our flesh. He died so we could live.
It’s time to empty the junk drawer. It’s time to lay it all at His feet. It’s time to recognize warfare for what it truly is. It’s time to dig up the roots. It’s time to experience freedom. It’s time to be delivered!
Matthew 10:1 And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.
Luke 10:19-20 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Mark 10:45 - For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Matthew 11:29 - Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
James 5:16 - Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Proverbs 28:13 - He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Matthew 10:33 - But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Romans 10:9-11 - That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved
Hebrews 10:22 - Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Acts 22:16 - And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
John 15:3 - Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Hebrews 10:26 - For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
Acts 10:15 - And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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