You see, as I have said, our culture defines deliverance as the casting out of a demon. But the Bible does not so define it. When we define the word correctly, we find that we are all involved in deliverance ministry as a part of our ongoing struggle in the Christian life. Consider these passages from your New Testament, and join the battle today for the delivering of believers… (all from KJV)

Romans 7:6. In Christ we have been already delivered from the law:

“But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”

Romans 7:24-25. Paul cries out in agony about his sinful nature, from which he needs daily deliverance.

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Romans 8:21. One day this body will be set free from its bondage. This is a deliverance yet to come.

“Because the creature [created being] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

Romans 15:31, 2 Corinthians 1:8-10, 2 Thessalonians 3:2 , 2 Timothy 4:17-18. A deliverance Paul needed and we need every day: protection from those who would harm us or our message. Satan attacks through other people, not just demons. If other people try to stop our work, we have the power to be delivered in the name of Jesus. Notice, deliverance in the past, present, future. Count on it.

“That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints;”

“And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.”

“For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.”

“Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Galatians 1:4, Colossians 1:13. The most important of the deliverances.

“Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.”

“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”

Hebrews 2:15. We are delivered from fear when we come to Christ.

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

2 Peter 2:9. We are also delivered from temptation. It was Jesus who taught us to pray for this very thing in the Lord’s prayer: “…but deliver us from evil.”

“The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:”

The doctrine of deliverance, as you now see, is broader than we had imagined. Definitely broader than we will see on TV or read in the pop theology books. Deliverance embraces every attempt of Satan to bind an earthling and secure him in his kingdom. Deliverance is the work of the one prophesied by Isaiah and quoted by Paul. (Isaiah 59:20, Romans 11:26. Note the overlapping of Redemption and Deliverance in these two verses!)

“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.”

“And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:”

Deliverance in my own life

I have had my own run-ins with the demonic, as have you. At age 14 I started having epileptic seizures. That’s what the doctors called them. Human diagnosis. As you see in the stories above, human diagnosis is not the whole story. I woke up from these episodes with an awful feeling of fear and distorted realities upon me. In my first one, it seemed my parents were trying to kill me.

I did not understand spiritual things in those days, though I had been part of a standard Christian church. The miraculous parts of Scripture were under-played and I grew up not knowing there was a world of spirits all around me. So when the doctor told me to take these pills, and that I probably could never grow out of it, I swallowed everything.

Twenty years of this, and lots of praying, and more knowing of who the real Jesus is, and what His Word really said, somewhere along the line the seizures stopped. The medicine was pitched. That was over 35 years ago. I have no seizures. I am delivered. Free from it.

I am technically a heart patient, for now 20 years. But I live. Doctors, operations yes. A lesser form of deliverance, but I have been spared to live and teach these many years.

A nervous breakdown which could have sent me to a mental institution only 6 years ago, didn’t. Lost adrenalin. Fear. Appetite loss. Then, serious praying by myself and others. Love. Godly music 24/7 for weeks. Gradually a come-back. Same Satan. Same deliverance. I’ll take it.

Final thoughts

Jesus is the Savior (from sin) and Jesus is the Deliverer (from demons). That’s how we like to say it. First Savior, then Deliverer. But this discounts stories in Scripture of those who were exorcised before there was any talk of sin. Persons who were healed first, then forgiven.