The famous quote from Walt Kelly is, "We have met the enemy, and he is us!" I think that is true for a lot of people who want to blame everything on the devil, or want a one-time deliverance session and expect to be totally set free from their carnal nature and be instantly made perfect. However, in this case, we have met the enemy, and he is the enemy.
There are people who blame things on the devil for which they should be repenting, and there are others who are repenting for things which they need deliverance. We need to be able to distinguish when it is either. I think in our last conference some of the greatest wisdom on deliverance that I have ever heard came forth. Many people said that any one of the teachings would have been worth the whole conference, and it was remarkable, but now we want to apply it.
There are real demonic forces arrayed against almost every Christian who is in true pursuit of their purpose and calling, which we can expect to encounter and will have to overcome to make true and lasting progress. The Lord lets them oppose us for our own good and strengthening. When a Christian begins to overcome instead of be overcome, as the Scriptures state, the devil will not only leave them, but will flee from them! That should be the story of every Christian, and will be before the end comes.
As we are told in James 4:7-8, "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you" (NKJV). Here we see that resisting the devil is sandwiched between submitting to God and drawing near to God. This is what we are endeavoring to do. Let me explain how.
Since we began hosting conferences in 1990, we have been under a special grace where each one has gone to an even higher level than the previous ones of that type. However, this year it seems we have gone from a special grace in this to a great grace. Even though the recent conference we held on Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare was the first of that type, it started off at a usually high level and just kept going higher. I have never heard so many testimonies of people being truly set free and their lives changed.
If those who attended go back to their families and churches and become the "freedom fighters" they are called to be, that one conference will have had a major impact in the body of Christ. I personally don't think I have ever seen conference people so different on the first day to the last day. This was far more effective than we had even hoped (the CDs and DVDs from this conference are available on this website at a special price—these include some of the best practical teachings on this subject I have heard). We are thankful for this freedom for so many, but we must keep this momentum going.
There was a lot of genuine deliverance at this conference. We are told in the Scriptures that a demonic power which is displaced will try to return. If we do not fill the void, the demons will return and bring back seven more friends even meaner than themselves (see Matthew 12:43-45). Therefore, we must fortify ourselves in any area that we displace a demon from our lives. We fortify ourselves by filling that void with the Lord.
In the very place where you may have been the weakest, you are called to be strong. By the Lord's grace His strength is made perfect in weakness, and we need to diligently pursue His grace by first humbling ourselves and acknowledging that we have a problem. This is called repentance. It does not matter how strong the devil may have gotten into our lives, that is how deeply the Lord can fill us once the enemy is driven out.
We also need to understand that when the demon leaves, sometimes it is like getting rid of the gopher but the holes are still there. By this I mean that you can kick the devil out, but you still have the old habit patterns that must be filled with the grace of God. Regardless of what you have been trapped in, you can be free, and you can walk in "the beauty of holiness," or we might say "the beauty of wholeness." True holiness is simply being wholly God's.
The Grief of a Shepherd
Studies over the last few decades detail a terrible and devastating slide into debauchery by evangelical Christians. Of course there is an increasing slide into lawlessness and debauchery by almost all people groups, but this should not be the case with Christians. Presently, there is no distinguishable behavior between Christians and non-Christians when there should always be a radical difference that stands out brightly. This must and will change, and it is happening now.
As a father, I know that if I left my children in the care of a friend and came back and they had been raped, beaten, abused, were sick, and starving, I don't want to think about what I might do to that "friend." So how does the Lord take it when this is precisely the condition of His children, who He entrusted into our care? This is happening on our watch! What do we do about it?
This burden has deeply provoked and challenged me for a long time now, and many of my prayers for answers to how we can turn this around have been given in our own conferences. We do not host a single conference without believing we have been given a mandate for it, that we have learned some things which can be helpful to others, and that we can learn some things that will be helpful to us. Lately, this has gone to a dramatically higher level, but we also have a long way to go. We need to see the momentum not only continued, but increased, just as it does now seem to be doing, but let's pray for even more.
I have been so encouraged lately that I have a real hope now that we can see the bride of Christ made pure and spotless even in our own time. I have real hope that those in our local congregations will be radically different than those who are sliding into a deepening darkness. I have real hope that they will not only be free, but will be freedom fighters setting other captives free wherever they go.
We learned far more in the last conference than we can review in just a bulletin. We were reminded of many other things that we already knew, but need to focus on with even more resolve. We were encouraged by how easily some demonic strongholds were broken over people's lives, which it seemed not long ago would have taken much longer—even hours and hours of battling. We don't have to do that. A deliverance session does not have to be like swimming upstream. A major strategy of the devil is to wear out the saints, and we must not fall into that trap again.
This is not spooky business either, but normal Christianity. It should be, and will be, an easy thing for every Christian to be able to deliver others from demonic oppression in any form, after we have been set free.
As a shepherd, I often ponder why the worst judgments were not upon false teachers or false prophets, but upon the shepherds who fed themselves while the Lord's sheep went hungry and were abused. None of us want to fall into that category when the great judgment day comes. If we are shepherds, we must consider the great privilege that we have been given to watch over the Lord's own household, but also the great responsibility that it is.
