Originally Posted by Esaias
There are three main problems with much of what is called "deliverance ministry". Four, actually.
1. Too many people involved in it have a REALLY unhealthy infatuation and fascination with "evil spirits". Talk to any santero (practitioner of Santeria) or voodoo practitioner, or any indigenous third worlder, and you will find the same mind set as is found among most "deliverance ministries" - pure superstition, evil spirits under every rock and behind every tree, EVERY problem is either gremlins, demons, or witchcraft, life is lived in the darkness of superstitious FEAR.
2. They promote "demon casting" for things that require old fashioned repentance. Cheating on your wife? Hooked on porn? Smoking dope? Lying all the time? Those aren't demons, those are SINS, and you can writhe, roll, foam at the mouth and flop at the altar till Jesus comes and you'll still bust hell wide open unless you REPENT.
3. The inculcate occultic thought processes, where the Holy Ghost winds being "the Force", the deliverance minister becomes a special-ed Jedi master, any who doubt what the Jedi says are just not privy to the ESOTERIC knowledge and wisdom known only to the special-ed "initiates" and "illuminated ones", life becomes a live action role play (LARP) game like Dungeons and Dragons with nonstop Walter Mitty fantasies of "spiritual warfare" that create a closed self-propelled feedback loop of delusions and silliness, and a focus on learning special prayer techniques, soaking meditation, "practicing the presence of God", "entering the throne room of the Shekinah Presence" and "unleashing" or "calling down" the "power of God" which is nothing but Wiccan "cone of fire" or trad satanist "raising the devil" methods couched in Christianese. ETC.
4. Deliverance ministries become traveling exorcists, everyone starts thinking they need to get to ABC Deliverance Ministry in order to get fixed up, man-worship takes over, etc. People actually bounce from deliverance ministry to deliverance ministry for every little problem, like junkies needing a Benny Hinn fix. I've met them, they are wacked out, Biblically illiterate, unstable, double minded, often have little respect for and use for their local assembly, and often don't contribute much to their local assembly, look down on others who aren't sold on their hype, etc. etc.
Are there demons? Yes. How much detail did God see fit to give us about dealing with demons? Basically, pray, fast if needed, and command them to go in Jesus name.
That's pretty much it.
Modern deliverance ministries have essentially become like medieval demonologists of the Roman Catholic Church.
REAL deliverance is found in old fasioned prayer, fasting, sanctification, and Bible preaching.
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