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Saved But Needing Deliverance
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Many Christians feel that they don’t need deliverance. Some of us were raised up in the church and feel that because we have never been at a bar, nightclub or embarked in alcohol or drugs that deliverance is for everyone else but not us. But ask yourself how many people have you offended or hurt by something you said or did. I was convinced that after being saved for over ten years and knowing that I had a strong Apostolic background, deliverance was not something that I needed. Believing that once you come to God and proclaim salvation, you are free from demonic oppression. I didn’t realize that I was as Lazarus, dead to my old ways of sin, saved by God’s grace but yet bound.
And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with gravesclothes, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him and let him go."
John 11:44
After getting married, my husband observed how I reacted to situations, people and even towards him at times. He questioned me about whether I had been through deliverance. My answer to him was that he was just a male chauvinist and the way I reacted to situations and the like, "... that's just how I am." My family knew that I had a strong personality and that I didn’t mind vocalizing whatever I felt and he would have to learn to accept it also.
One day when I was upset with my husband I went to my prayer closet to pray. I asked God, “Why doesn’t this man understand me? He can’t love me for who “I am” and I know that I don’t need to change. God please help him.” Little did I know but I was about encounter an awakening, the Holy Spirit made me aware that it was not my husband with the problem but it was me! God wants us to be free to serve Him! This scripture was placed in my heart.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Luke 4:18-19
I began to define these words: proclaim, liberty, captives, broken hearted, blind, oppressed and I saw where I was and where I wanted to be in my walk with God. He gave me understanding that satan doesn’t want me to see the demonic spirits that reside in me because if I’m aware of them and get delivered then they will have to leave. I immediately went to my husband and apologized and reluctantly (because of self pride) told him that I needed deliverance. He began to pray with me and show me scriptures where Jesus delivered many people in the Bible.
I was a very apprehensive because I honestly didn’t see anything wrong with myself. Obscenity, smoking, drinking alcohol, fornicating, lying or indulging in drugs were bondage’s (or so I thought) of my past. But I felt that I was justified to protect myself from ill-treatment, never forgive those who had hurt me and express my feelings (with no thought of the after effects on others). Seeing the splinters in everybody else’s eyes but never seeing the log in my own because of the blinders that the enemy had placed on me.
With much patience, understanding and with Jesus’ leading my husband helped as I went through deliverance. I was not delivered from all bondage immediately, the process actually took about two years before I was totally free. Let me explain, demonic bondages link to each other, for example, lust may link to pornography; pornography links to fornication; fornication links to homosexuality; homosexuality links to abuse; abuse links to hate; and hate links to murder. Murder being the dominate and stronger demonic spirit will allow lust, the weakest bondage to be evident and expelled, then the others that are linked will follow while the murder stronghold which is the strongest stay and try to resist.
Surprisingly, I found that some of what I thought was my strong personality were actually demonic strongholds being manifested. They had been passed down through generational curses (deceased family members who were cursed or dealt in roots/witchcraft), sin that I knowingly had committed in the past (drinking, cursing and fornicating) and sin that through my innocence gained entry (watching television programs like Bewitched and playing with magic or fortune cubes).
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