Deliverance in Depth

I have often spoken about deliverance and spiritual warfare. While I believe what the Bible says about deliverance from demons, I have noticed that no Christian believer is found to be possessed by a demon (completely overthrown and controlled) in the New Testament; only unbelievers are possessed (Mark 5:1-20, Mark 9:14-29). However, I do believe devils can harbor and linger around our homes, implant images and thoughts, and even influence us with thoughts (Romans 12:2) because of the lifestyle we permit, sins we practice, artifices of the evil one kept in our homes (Thor's Hammer, a pendant, etc). Not all demonic activity does comes from sin or tolerance of Satanic things, for the Apostle Paul actually was sent a demon, "or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." (2 Corinthians 12:7-9). It is not that the Almighty God is less strong than the servants of evil, for it is written, "Greater is He who is in you, than he that is in world," (1 John 4:4), "Submit therefore to God, resist the devil and he shall flee," (James 4:7), "And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming," (2 Thessalonians 2:8), and, Jesus will at Armageddon do this, "And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever," (Revelation 20:10). The reason demons and the devil linger in a believer's life is willful participation in the pernicious things. There are television series, objects accursed (like pentagram), fabrics and artwork with superimposed Satanic imagery, and more that can cause trouble, that is to say spiritual battle in your life. Paul's experience is the exception, not the rule. God sent him a messenger of Satan to keep him from the sin of pride, which would have had Paul fall worse into throes of the evil one, than be tormented or harassed by the messenger. In Paul's case the messenger was sent to curb and keep him from sin, a reminder of what would have power over him if he willfully practiced pride,

Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, "But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil." (1 John 3:8). The problem is that if you being a Christian turn back to practicing sin and living it without repenting and through Christ crucifying it (), the devil and his demonic hordes get back into your life. The key is practicing sin, which means you not only have justified sin and said its ok, you are practicing it like an Olympian trying to win the Olympic Games! It means you actually are proud of the sin, and try to increase your fits of rage, drunkenness, and sexually immoral conquests. Stumbling in sin is different, "But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness." (1 John 1:9). The devil and the fallen angels are able to enter a Christian's life when they compromise and commit sin on purpose, tolerate idols, and implant evil things into their lives like Satanic shows and even art. The Apostle Paul and Peter have bad news for those who believe they can keep practicing sin, "When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God," (Galatians 5:19-21), and "If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through their knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them." (2 Peter 2:21). When Apostle Paul says, "anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God," cross references to John's words, "But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning." (1 John 3:8). What opens people up to the devil is practicing and keeping on sinning. It is not resisting sin, and you stumble, for that has been covered by the Blood of Jesus Christ (Hebrews :12-14, Romans 3:25, Matthew 26:27-28). The matter is one of motives and the heart, if you have a heart to seek Christ, know Him, and follow His ways, and you make mistakes then those mistakes are covered, but if your heart says as the Corinthians did, that you can sin all the more because of Grace, the Apostle Paul has news for you. Read this carefully,  "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires/Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace. Well then, since God's grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:1-23).

To refuse reform, to not seek to be like Christ after being saved, is to in effect come against salvation. For if you are unchanged, or worse you rebel and believe you will get out of hell despite your longing for it, and to practice the very sins that Crucified Our Lord Jesus Christ, and so by practicing them you say they are good, when God says they are evil and even were why He had to give His Son as sacrifice is to turn on the Gospel and Crucifixion of Jesus. By deciding to keep sinning and even endorse it, and become an expert Olympian sinner you have in effect chosen the devil (1 John 3:8) and "put Christ to public shame," (Hebrews 6:3-6) and "Christ will be of no value to you at all." (Galatians 5:2).

This is not works based Gospel, I am talking about a heart matter. Jesus Christ accomplished all that was necessary for salvation (Hebrews 9:28, 1 Peter 3:18, Romans 6:10), you need merely believe in Him (John 3:16, Romans 10:9). Jesus Christ has done it all, we need only keep believing in His All Sufficient Sacrifice (Hebrews 10, whole chapter). What however opens your life to the devil and damnation is practicing the sins mentioned in Galatians, "When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God," (Galatians 5:19-21); this cross references to the letter to the Corinthians, "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to nor perform homosexual acts, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people--none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God." (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
What happens is if you keep practicing these sins, condoning them, justify them, and become good at them your heart and lifestyle will lead you from the Lord Jesus and The Father and to the lord of flies and father of lies (John 8:44), hence what Jesus meant, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money (Mammon, really Satan/the devil see Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14)." (Matthew 6:24. cross ref Luke 16:13). If you stumble the Savior can forgive, and if you practice sin and repent and experience revival (rededication) you can be forgiven, even if you near death and gates of hell itself, and utter with a breath and in sincerity of your heart, "forgive me Jesus Christ, I believe in you," you can be forgiven; the problem is that if you keep practicing sin you become more like its architect Satan, the devil (Genesis 3:1-6, Revelation 12:7-17). Eventually if you keep on the road of practicing sin, you become like Satan, rebellious and hateful towards God, "At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other," (Matthew 24:10), "The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons, Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron..," (1 Timothy 4:3-4), "and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things (Satan was created see Ezekiel 28) rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen." (Romans 1:23-25). The path of practicing sin leads to idolatry or idolatry leads to practicing sin. The reason someone becomes damned, sent to Hell and the Second Death, is not that the Son of God's blood was not enough, it was that their practicing of sin lead them into places that taught them to not care about Christ's sacrifice and turned their hearts (doctrines of demons) from Him. The Apostles warn us that practicing sin doesn't lead to hell in itself, it is pathway that leads to evil one who is bound for hell (Matthew 7:23, Revelation 20:10) and makes people eventually become sympathetic to his wicked cause, and they then commit apostasy (Hebrews 6:3-6, 2 Peter 2:20-21) and finally are doomed to damnation. This is why Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it," (Matthew 7:13-14), "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture," (John 10:9), and "Jesus answered, "I am the (narrow) way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6, parenthesis mine). The devil and his demons and fallen angels seek to enter your life by getting you to accept sin, practice it (get good at it), condone it, promote it, and love it. We are suppose to hate sin, and be thankful Jesus Christ paid the price for it and show our appreciation through living a life after Him, and so become like Him (with His help) and walk out of sin, crucify it (), and keep killing it through His Blood and His Commands until He Comes Again on the Clouds (Revelation 1:7).

Sin has lost its potency in that we are forgiven by Jesus Christ, but now that we are forgiven we must walk out of the sin and in righteousness through Christ who strengths us and makes us victorious (Romans 8:31-39, , 1 Corinthians 15:57). God now lives in those who believe (1 Corinthians 3:16) in Jesus Christ as God and Risen (Romans 10:9). We are not left to our own devices or some law to try and fulfill, Jesus has already done what is necessary; but now we need Him to live it out in our lives (we partner with Him, we make choices in accordance with His commands, we live, but He lives righteously through us too at same time) so that the devil does not get a foothold again. The tension of this message I am writing in this post is hard to express; go too far one way and you get works based salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9) and circumcision (Galatians 5:2), believe its not important and you end up like the Romans churches (Romans 1:1-23), and risk with the idolatries and practicing of sin of becoming an apostates (Hebrews 6:3-6, 2 Peter 2:20-21).

The best answer of tension between grace and works in found in Romans 1:1-23 (you can read it above, in blue letters, major paragraph) and in the words of James,
"What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?  If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,  and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?  Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!  But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?  Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?  And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.  You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." (James 2:14-26, NKJV).

James expresses the tension we must have between the two. We have grace, Jesus saves us, but we do works which work out that very salvation (Phillippians 3:6) and replace the sinful works of flesh that lead to Satan and the Second Death. Deliverance is thus twofold, it means to believe in Jesus Christ as God, and Risen (Romans 10:9) and to believe He died for all your sin and through Him is eternal life (John 3:16), and it means to live out that deliverance through righteous living, deeds, and works. As a pastor once said, "if you are busy doing the does, you do not have time to do the don't," or as St. Jerome said, "Be ever engaged (in good works), so whenever the devil calls he may find you occupied."