Healing & Deliverance Ministry: What It Is & What To Be Aware Of

There is a lot of talk about what a healing and deliverance ministry is and what it should and shouldn’t be. To get a clear answer I did a little research.

What is a healing and deliverance ministry? A biblical healing and deliverance ministry prays for people in the authority of Jesus Christ to set them free from demons and evil spirits that manifest in their life through possession or oppression. “Ministries” that use methods like visualization, hypnosis, family constellations, and inner healing are not biblical and should be avoided.

I found more helpful details in the Bible that I would love to show you in more detail. Also, I want to answer the question of why someone would need a deliverance ministry. So let’s dive in.

What Is A Biblical Healing & Deliverance Ministry?

When I was confronted with the full gospel of Jesus for the first time I found myself in a service where the participants prayed on “the full armor of God”. They started casting out demons in the name of Jesus and a very lively charismatic prayer session erupted. – Unexpectedly I found myself in a healing and deliverance service.

When thinking of deliverance ministry, one might think of a dramatic exorcism where a priest armed with a crucifix and holy water screams at a demon in an epic battle for life.

Well … thankfully biblical deliverance ministry is not quite like that.

“Deliverance is a process of freeing a person from the influence of an evil spirit.”

ChristianHealingMin.org

Healing and deliverance ministry is a ministry that helps people get free from demon possession, oppression, and strong demonic influence. Possession herby means a demon taking over the will and the body of a person.

Oppression describes someone being attacked by an evil spirit. It means being pressed down (figuratively) or in a broader sense being discouraged. The latter can obviously come in different forms like feeling hurt, depressed, rejected, etc.

To illustrate the influence of evil spirits I found a great example in my research by Derek Prince:

Just picture a city center with freedom under the law and several side streets. Even though the city center is free the side streets might be controlled by local gangs.

So it is with demonization or demonic influence over people. While some areas of our lives are controlled by the Holy Spirit in freedom, other areas might be demon oppressed.

To get rid of such demonic influence healing and deliverance ministries pray in the name of Jesus for freedom of this demonic oppression according to the example of Jesus in the Bible.

The difference between deliverance and exorcism is that exorcism is performed by the roman catholic or the episcopal church. Healing and deliverance are what was practiced in the early church.

Biblical Meaning of Healing and Deliverance Ministry

In the Bible, you do find “deliverance ministry” in the form of casting out demons, and prayer for healing. Jesus’ and the apostle’s whole ministry was about that deliverance ministry (Luke 4:18, Matthew 10:7-8, Mark 16:15-20, Acts 16:18).

Jesus taught His disciples about “deliverance ministry” in Matthew 12:43-45 and 17:19-21 and was an example of how to do it practically.

Maybe you remember the guy possessed by the demon called Legion. Jesus confronted him and cast him out, which left the man healed and in his right mind (Luke 8:26-39).

Now, it is important to also see even in this rather dramatic example that there is no “healing ministry” without deliverance. The two should always go together. In this article, I go into more detail about the correlation between the two.

Healing and deliverance can happen individually, but the Bible shows us in most cases God does heal people through deliverance (Mark 1:34, Luke 9:37-42).

In fact, Jesus empowered His followers through His resurrection and salvation to work healings and do deliverance. In Jesus, we have the authority to cast out demons, heal the sick, raise the dead, and preach the gospel (Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15-20, John 20:21).

Why Would People Need Deliverance Ministry?

When it comes to who would need this ministry people rarely think of themselves needing deliverance. You might think of new converts or people that came out of the occult.

People need deliverance ministry in order to be delivered of demonic oppression or demonic possession through prayer. If a believer feels bound by a spiritual force a deliverance minister or any other Christian believer can release God’s freedom in the name and the authority of Jesus.

While it is true that new converts do need deliverance from all the piled-up demonic baggage, you need to know that demons enter our lives through all kinds of sin.

Sin brings curses into our lives, and if your ancestors didn’t clean up with these curses you might be dealing with demonic influence through generational curses (Exodus 20:5).

Other door openers to the demonic can be traumas and soul ties. The latter results from premarital sex or other unclean relationships.

The Bible says that a man and a woman become one flesh when they come together (Ephesians 5:31, Matthew 19:6). Their souls build a connection in the spirit, which is good and godly.

But if relationships develop without the blessing and outside the will of God, these soul ties are big open doors for demonic attacks.

Where To Go & What To Do in Deliverance Ministry

When suffering under the demonic influence in the form of oppression or even possession it is important to not be terrified. There is help and there is a way out of it. The way out is called Jesus!

First and foremost know that Jesus is able to do far more than we could think of or ask for (Ephesians 3:20). If Jesus delivered people back then He definitely can deliver you. He is able to set you free from the biggest demonic attack.

For personal deliverance, it would be good that you seek help from a brother or a sister in the Lord that is experienced in healing and deliverance ministry.

Here is what I would do to prepare or support a deliverance prayer session and what you can do too:

• Repent of all my sin before Jesus (known, specific, or unknown)
• Forgive every person everything that hurt you or wronged you in any way. Release them fully.
• Renounce that sin and the attached curses to it (Be specific. The more specific the greater can be the deliverance.)
• Make “it” your enemy. God is only delivering you from your enemy, not your friend.
• Invite the Holy Spirit and tell those demons to leave you and your life in Jesus’ name.

I wrote a helpful more detailed prayer article for healing and deliverance that will help you in this process. Be sure to check it out.

You have to know that deliverance is a process. Sometimes God sets you free in an instance. But sometimes it takes a little bit of a fight. Remember the illustration of the gangs in the side streets. The police might clear out one street, but that doesn’t make all the other streets clean as well.

If you feel like God has given you a breakthrough already it’s important to maintain that healing and deliverance. In this article, you can learn how.

Be sure to find a good church and ministry that does deliverance ministry regularly. They are rare because it’s not a popular topic among Christians. Some churches try to only deal with such things outside their services.

However, I encourage you to look for one that is not afraid of casting out demons and praying for miracles.

You might also find a ministry that can minister to you online. The healing and deliverance ministry I got saved in years ago has tons of good content on Youtube. To this day I still receive a lot of anointed healing and deliverance through their videos and teachings. Be sure to check them out!

What To Be Aware Of In Healing & Deliverance Ministry

What you have to be aware of with healing and deliverance ministries that do:

• endless counseling sessions
• family constellations
• inner healing through visualization
• hypnosis
• yoga
• healing only.

Let me explain what I mean.

In general, you don’t want ministries that do endless counseling sessions that basically try to fix the spiritual problem through psychology and endless talking. It’s a spiritual problem that needs to be healed or delivered spiritually through prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus didn’t do long counseling sessions. He prayed and told those demons to go.

A close family member used to participate in family constellations to figure out certain roots of problems. In this method, different people take the roles of your family members and try to impersonate them to illustrate the problem. This is another attempt to solve a spiritual issue in the flesh through psychology which almost seems like a New Age practice.

This brings me to my next point: Inner Healing. As far as my research showed me this is a “healing technique” that tries to “heal” emotional wounds of the past by using the visualization of a guide like “Jesus” who then takes you into your (maybe even forgotten) past to heal that wound.

In this article, you can find out if this “Inner Healing” method is in the Bible. The secular practitioners of this technique use Buddha and the like as a guide. All you need is to have faith in the guide being able to heal you.

Now, doesn’t this sound like new age to you too?

Again let me ask you, did Jesus teach this method? No. So, why should we use it then?!

Hypnosis should be self-explanatory. Let me just say, it’s absolutely not from God. It’s witchcraft trying to come in through manipulation of the mind. You don’t want this demonic mind control crap in your life.

Be careful about ministries that emphasize “healing only“. Even though I believe that God is using these ministries I would be careful just for the fact that they leave a part of the gospel out. Some of them are against deliverance for Christians. But Jesus saved, healed, and delivered.

Just be prayerfully careful about that. It’s always a little iffy with ministries that have a heavy emphasis on a special doctrine. Nevertheless, God loves them and even uses them where He can.

I almost forgot to mention Yoga… Let’s keep that for another article, shall we?

I guess a good rule of thumb is to hold them against: “What would Jesus do?”

If they do what Jesus did, go for it.

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