The overall theme of Part One of this book is The Cross and the Damaging Effects of Human Hurts. Our chapter for this week (chapter 6 - Deliverance for Those Who are Bound) is the final chapter in this section and it’s about demonization.
When Satan attacks you, command him in Jesus’ name to bend his neck. On the back of it, you’ll find a nail-scarred footprint! (E. Stanley Jones)
In dealing with a seminary graduate who was about to begin a new pastoral assignment with his church and who had a problem with uncontrollable rage, Stephen Seamands explained to him that his rage was like a fire, and “Bill” was seeking to keep it under control through the power of the Holy Spirit. But demonic powers, having gained an entry point into his life, could be likened to someone pouring gasoline on the fire while he was trying to keep it under control. “They act as hypercatalysts, piggy-backing on existing problems so that at times our behavior seems almost compulsive. Our willpower simply isn’t strong enough to withstand their onslaughts. For Christians who are demonized, in certain areas of their lives the playing field, instead of being level, is such a steep uphill incline it’s almost impossible for them to run the race for Christ victoriously.”
Throughout the chapter, the author underscores that this demonic influence is not the root problem, however. Demons are like rats that are attracted to garbage, and so it’s very important to deal with the “garbage” (be that personal sin or the sin of others against us or lack of forgiveness, etc.). Once the garbage is cleaned up, it is easy to get rid of the “rats.” Another issue to address is that of any possible occult activities, even if they seem innocent enough. It’s important to renounce any involvement in this.
Although Bill had prayed through childhood roots of his anger, he still was a slave to it. Seamands took Bill through several steps of dealing with his spiritual and emotional garbage, leading him to repent and renounce his turning to anger and rage as a “friend” to help him deal with his problems. Together then they cancelled any generational bond of anger that he had with his father and grandfather who both manifested the same sin.
On the basis of I John 1:7-9 they declared that Bill was forgiven and cleansed.
Seamands then confronted the demons directly with the authority of Christ, and the demons left him.
Upon receiving fresh cleansing and deliverance, the author then invited the Holy Spirit to fill Bill afresh, asking Him to take control of those areas that been under demonic influence. He told Bill to keep short accounts with God in order to not open the door again to the evil powers, and he encouraged him to keep moving toward emotional wholeness and to establish regular times of prayer and reading the Scriptures.
The testimony of Bill five years later was that while he had normal struggles with anger, he had not once had anything approaching the rage he used to experience.
The Demonization of Christians
In this section the author addresses the question related to whether or not a Christian can have demons. He begins by saying that “most emotional hurts do not result in demonization.”
He goes on to explain why he uses the word “demonization” rather than “demon-possessed” (which suggests total ownership and control). Demonization is “more compatible with the varying degrees of internal control that demons may exert on persons. It’s also a word that can be used to describe genuine Christians (who)…in certain areas of their lives, demons continue to exert a significant measure of internal control.”
When Satan attacks you, command him in Jesus’ name to bend his neck. On the back of it, you’ll find a nail-scarred footprint! (E. Stanley Jones)
In dealing with a seminary graduate who was about to begin a new pastoral assignment with his church and who had a problem with uncontrollable rage, Stephen Seamands explained to him that his rage was like a fire, and “Bill” was seeking to keep it under control through the power of the Holy Spirit. But demonic powers, having gained an entry point into his life, could be likened to someone pouring gasoline on the fire while he was trying to keep it under control. “They act as hypercatalysts, piggy-backing on existing problems so that at times our behavior seems almost compulsive. Our willpower simply isn’t strong enough to withstand their onslaughts. For Christians who are demonized, in certain areas of their lives the playing field, instead of being level, is such a steep uphill incline it’s almost impossible for them to run the race for Christ victoriously.”
Throughout the chapter, the author underscores that this demonic influence is not the root problem, however. Demons are like rats that are attracted to garbage, and so it’s very important to deal with the “garbage” (be that personal sin or the sin of others against us or lack of forgiveness, etc.). Once the garbage is cleaned up, it is easy to get rid of the “rats.” Another issue to address is that of any possible occult activities, even if they seem innocent enough. It’s important to renounce any involvement in this.
Although Bill had prayed through childhood roots of his anger, he still was a slave to it. Seamands took Bill through several steps of dealing with his spiritual and emotional garbage, leading him to repent and renounce his turning to anger and rage as a “friend” to help him deal with his problems. Together then they cancelled any generational bond of anger that he had with his father and grandfather who both manifested the same sin.
On the basis of I John 1:7-9 they declared that Bill was forgiven and cleansed.
Seamands then confronted the demons directly with the authority of Christ, and the demons left him.
Upon receiving fresh cleansing and deliverance, the author then invited the Holy Spirit to fill Bill afresh, asking Him to take control of those areas that been under demonic influence. He told Bill to keep short accounts with God in order to not open the door again to the evil powers, and he encouraged him to keep moving toward emotional wholeness and to establish regular times of prayer and reading the Scriptures.
The testimony of Bill five years later was that while he had normal struggles with anger, he had not once had anything approaching the rage he used to experience.
The Demonization of Christians
In this section the author addresses the question related to whether or not a Christian can have demons. He begins by saying that “most emotional hurts do not result in demonization.”
He goes on to explain why he uses the word “demonization” rather than “demon-possessed” (which suggests total ownership and control). Demonization is “more compatible with the varying degrees of internal control that demons may exert on persons. It’s also a word that can be used to describe genuine Christians (who)…in certain areas of their lives, demons continue to exert a significant measure of internal control.”
Terry Wardle suggests four ways in which demonized persons experience demonic activity:
1. Harassment – the demon doesn’t keep the person away from his course but seeks to bother and discourage (like a mosquito buzzing around his head)
2. Oppression – like a fog, the person finds it difficult to stay on trace and battles varying levels of emotional and spiritual oppression.
3. Affliction – demons seek to bring emotional, spiritual and physical suffering to the person in the effort to defeat and demoralize him.
4. Bondage – possible because of personal choices to give room to this. Despite personal efforts to move beyond the problem of sinful behavior, the person finds it hard to resist and repeatedly fails to find freedom.
Nailed to the Cross
Jesus cast out demons throughout His public ministry, engaging in warfare and combat with Satan. However, there was a climactic battle when “Jesus inflicted a mortal wound on Satan. That battle was fought and won on the cross where the serpent Satan’s head was crushed. Genesis 3:15…”
How did He defeat Satan on the cross? Through His unswerving and voluntary obedience, Jesus refused to turn away from His Father or hate his enemies or resort to violence against them. In His remaining free and uncontaminated and uncompromised, the devil could find nothing in Jesus to gain a hold of, and he finally had to concede defeat.
Although Jesus cast out demons in His ministry, on the cross He did not overcome power with power. “The battle Jesus and Satan fought there wasn’t like the clash of two titans locked in a mortal struggle to the death. Instead, Jesus won the battle by erasing the record that stood against us and satisfying its legal demands. Augustine said it well: ‘It pleased God that for the sake of rescuing men from the power of the devil, the devil should be overcome not by power but by justice.’”
“Through his death, then, Jesus has stamped ‘Paid in full’ on the record that stood against us. He declared it (the IOU) null and void…And because it has been nailed to the cross, the devil now has no rightful claim on us. The Accuser…no longer has any legal accusation to bring against us…Jesus won the decisive battle in the war not through a direct frontal attack on the evil one but by removing his right to hold us in his power…By liberating us from sin, he has also liberated us from Satan.”
Deliverance from Demonization
“…they (Christians) are demonized in the sense that demons still maintain a significant level of control or influence in specific areas of their lives. How then are they to be set free from demonic harassment, oppression, affliction and bondage?...Jesus’ victory at the cross provides the pattern. Instead of engaging in a direct cosmic struggle with the prince of darkness, he removed the basis for Satan’s dominion over us by taking our sin and nailing it to the cross, canceling our debt and wiping our slate clean. In finding freedom from demonization, that should be our focus too – not demons themselves but the basis for their dominion in our lives.
…Make no mistake, there is a legitimate time and place for direct confrontation…But that should not be our primary focus.”
Seamands ends the chapter with the counsel not to immediately jump to the conclusion that you are demonized in a particular area of your life but rather to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth and to seek out someone experienced in healing prayer and these areas who can help you discern if there is a “significant demonic component to your problem or whether it si only spiritual, psychological or physiological in nature…Above all, continue to work on the spiritual and emotional garbage in your life…keep seeking forgiveness and release from your sins and healing for your wounds.”
To close out this posting, I want to quote a line from this chapter that I quoted earlier here:
“The Accuser…no longer has any legal accusation to bring against us…”
Sometimes when I pray with someone who is tormented by past sin and can’t seem to shake it off even though they have confessed and repented and received forgiveness, I will remind them of this truth and of the fact that they have a Lawyer (Advocate) Who will speak on their behalf when the accuser comes to draw them into debates with him about their case. Just like a lawyer tells the accused not to talk when asked questions about their case, so we can refer the accuser to our heavenly Advocate, Jesus, and let Him answer with the truth. We are not capable of winning a debate with the devil, but he knows (even better than we know) that he doesn’t stand a chance against the Lord Jesus. The name of Jesus is a strong tower to which we can run when being harassed by the demonic forces.
Lord Jesus, I pray that we will increasingly find our rest and freedom in Your work on Calvary. Holy Spirit, expose any area where demonic influence could be keeping us trapped in patterns of sin that we have no power over. We look to the cross and say “Thank You for nullifying and erasing completely the debt we owe and for stripping the evil powers of any grounds for accusing us.” We worship You, dear Lord, and put our trust in You alone. Thank You that You hear our prayer!
The second part of this book is about “The Cross and the Path to Healing.” We will cover chapter seven next week (“Embracing the Pain”). God bless you this week!
Wounds that Heal—Deliverance for Those Who Are Bound
ReplyDeleteThe author states well that the demonic is not the primary problem in someone’s life…It is, in fact our own sins, the reactions to the sins against us, generational sins, and the occult. The term “otherness,” as relating to the control or influence of demons in certain areas of our lives, helps describe it. There is a certain and helpful clarity about how he presents the reasons and ways that demonization is or may become a part of us. Garbage and rats seem quite clarifying.
He goes on and actually has a sequence (I don’t mean to methodize it) to becoming free of any demonization in our life. He moves a person from the confessional, the confessing/repenting of the sin, the renouncing of those actions, the declaration of forgiveness, the confronting of any demons, being delivered/cleansed…to the inviting the Holy Spirit in to fill us afresh again. I really appreciated the verse he used regarding generational sin (or any sin, I imagine): I Peter 1:18-19 “You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.”
One of the items he mentions is to “keep moving toward emotional wholeness” which, I feel, is vital to staying free from the onslaughts of the enemy. To keep God’s message of His personal love and His wonderful acceptance in the foreground in our spirit and in our awareness will help eliminate the subtle, underlying thoughts of what we supposedly aren’t. How vital is that!
In relation to the questions of Christians and the demonic, it was helpful that he used the term “demonization” in so far as there are “varying degrees of internal control that demons may exert on persons.” These are especially in unresolved spiritual and emotional issues of our lives.
As a “fog” of oppression was lifting from me (over time), it became clearer to me that as my understanding moved to a deeper heart recognition, not only a head knowledge of truth…freedom came with it. It becomes relational…note this:
“God made you alive together with him…” Note ALIVE, note TOGETHER, note WITH HIM. When we are alive, and together, and with him…isn’t it a relationship? Not only words. Note: I am writing this now as though it was truth, not relationship…but it is the result of the inner relationship wherein it can be expressed in words and as we read truth, the Lord needs to make it living.
Part of the quote from Eduard Lohse goes: “ …where there is forgiveness of sins, there is freedom from the ‘powers’ and ‘principalities’, there is life and salvation.” The record against us is erased, wiped clean, nailed to the cross, and we are completely forgiven.
As Jesus won the battle over the evil one, again we can actually know this being “alive together with Him,” in that we not only have the liberation from sin (primary) but a liberation (secondary) from Satan and all his demonic powers.
In his section on Deliverance from Demonization, he reminds us of the Passover in Egypt. It is not enough for Christ to have shed his blood on Calvary, and here again we have another relational thought…the forgiveness and freedom “must be personally received and appropriated. His blood must be applied—sprinkled on the doorpost of our hearts and in every chamber as well.”
In finding, keeping freedom from the domination of Satan, we must remember to focus our eyes on the real basis of that freedom—Jesus taking our sins and any demonization to the cross, erasing and destroying the power of the evil one.
“Keep seeking forgiveness and release from your sins and healing for your wounds. Walk in the light of God’s truth. Let it penetrate your innermost self. Bring your garbage to the cross…for cleansing and transforming”…freedom will follow.