| DELIVERANCE: PREPARING FOR A DELIVERANCE SERVICE (Interviewing the Demonized Person) Francis MacNutt HIS GLORY REIGNS B. Childress Dec 12 2008 08:00AM Ordinarily it is best to hold a separate interview with the person who is a candidate for deliverance, although this is not always possible. In a large healing service, for instance, deliverance may erupt spontaneously (although even here the prayer of deliverance can often be postponed until a better time.) The Interview The most important element in the interview is the candidate's openness and honesty. The interview need not be structured, provided the person feels free to share what he or she knows and can remember. What we seek to discover is the reason the evil spirit has come into the person's being. It is not always the person's fault, but there is always a reason. Only when we know the area of weakness are we able to pry the spirit loose and strengthen that area so that the spirit cannot return. Is there anything the person has done that has contributed to this situation? Has there been sin on his part? He may, for example, remember playing the Ouija board. If this demonic infestation has come about in any way through his own fault, he needs to confess this sin and ask God's forgiveness - either at the time of the interview or at the beginning of the actual deliverance session. Ideally the confession should be out loud in the presence of a mature Christian, as in James 5:15-16:
shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." In the Catholic tradition this ordinarily takes place with a priest in the sacrament of reconciliation. Satan is a vicious legalist, and if any unconfessed sin is connected to the demonic infestation, the invading spirit will probably not leave when you pray, or else it may leave for a short time but will come right back and invade the area of the victim's weakness. Is the victimized person infested because of another person's sin? A woman may be afflicted by a spirit of fear or lust caused by her having been raped as a child. Naturally she does not need to repent of a sin she did not commit, even though she often feels dirty and guilty. What she does need to do is forgive the person who sinned against her. This can be very difficult if the emotional damage has been severe. I (Francis MacNutt) have come to realize that forgiving an enemy who has hurt us deeply is, humanly speaking, almost impossible. What we need is grace - the gift of Jesus. I must pray that the love and forgiving power that Jesus has for this person will enter me so that I can be filled with the forgiveness He won on the cross when He cried out, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." On my own I may not be able to forgive, but with God's help I can. This does not mean, of course, that we condone the sin committed against us; only that, as St. Augustine said, we fiercely hate sin but love the sinner. Because of the emotions attached to the wounding, deep forgiveness usually takes time, and we must not force people to pretend. If they say they do not want to forgive, I ask if they can will to forgive without necessarily feeling like doing it. Sometimes the best we can do is ask, "Are you willing to be willing to forgive?" At the very least, though, we need to be able to relinquish any desire for vengeance- an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth: "Never take vengeance into your own hands, my dear friends: stand back and let God punish if he will." (Romans 12:19). After the person has repented, confessed his sin and forgiven his enemies (if needed), there are two key questions to ask:
You will often find that just by getting the person to talk, you may learn not only when the problem started and why, but perhaps even what spirits are present. Roberta, for instance, is a good example. She was able to identify the King of Terrors, whose name was pinned to her dress when she was consecrated as a child by a satanic high priest many years before. Some people are shy and have a hard time talking. At other times the demons surface and actively block you from talking to the person. If this blocking occurs, command the spirits to stop interfering: "I command you, spirit of mockery, in the name of Jesus Christ, to stop interfering, so I can talk to ______________!" Interviews can be short when the person is ready for deliverance and when we know what we are dealing with. They can be even shorter when the demonized person is innocent of occult involvement. Preparation can take time, on the other hand, if the demonized person blows hot and cold or has too shaky a foundation to maintain his deliverance. I have friends who require that some of their counselees prepare (as well as show sincerity of purpose) by spending six months before deliverance by praying and reading Scripture regularly, becoming part of a fellowship group and attending church regularly. They have found that people who have led an unstable life need to build a solid foundation. And even if you do manage to cast the evil spirits out, they will simply return. (For those of you who are fearful, I want to emphasize that someone leading a solid Christian life need not fear that the spirits will return.) Identifying the Spirits We must try to identity the spirits in a general way, because our approach to deliverance will be very different depending on the kind of spirit we are dealing with. There are four basic categories of spirits, so you will need to sort out whether you are confronting,
not primarily the person's own sin, but another person's sins that have left deep wounds. A good example of this kind of spirit is rejections. A little girl may have been rejected by her mother or father, making it hard for the woman later in life, on a purely natural level, to believe that anyone could ever really love her; and she will find it hard to trust anyone. A spirit of rejection moving into that wound will intensify the human rejection and make it even harder for the woman to trust. She may need to repent for hating the perpetrator, but basically she is more sinned against than sinning, more a victim than a perpetrator. Sinful Spirits Here your interview may reveal that the demonic infestation has been caused by the person's own sinful actions. If the sin has been intense and willful, or if it has been indulged in over a long time, then the evil spirits have, in a sense, been invited in. A man may have learned to handle his personal problems with violence, then enlisted in the Marines and found a rationale for justifying his violence in war. He may be discharged from the service with medals on his uniform but have marital difficulties because of the habitual patterns of violence in which he has indulged. Also, his ungovernable temper may be intensified by various spirits that have entered him over the years. Some of these spirits of sin (such as murder) are fierce and difficult to dislodge. Others (such as vanity) come out whining and simpering. Occult Spirits Your interview may reveal that the person has engaged in occult activities. It is important to learn this because the occult spirits are the most tenacious and difficult to drive out. Discovering if occult spirits are present is especially important because they will try to block any prayers for healing you may attempt. Ancestral Spirits A number of other spirits do not fit into these three categories. The most important among them are the ancestral or familiar spirits that identify themselves as the restless spirits of the departed. There is a variety of other spirits, like the spirit of false religion and the spirit of legalism, that are not easily categorized. A (Sample) Questionnaire To help pinpoint some of the problems in the initial interview, you may want to make up a series of questions to ask. Do not feel bound to use a questionnaire every time you interview someone to decide if he needs deliverance; only if you have time to pray over an extended period of sessions. But an orderly questionnaire can help you not to miss anything significant. Here is my synopsis of a questionnaire that several members of our staff (Francis MacNutt's staff) have developed. We do not propose it as the ideal, just a model to encourage you to develop your own. Deliverance Questionnaire 1) Had your fortune told by tea leaves, palm-reading, a crystal ball, etc.? 2) Read or followed horoscopes or had a chart made for yourself? 3) Practiced yoga or Transcendental Meditation? 4) Attended a séance or spiritualist meeting? 5) Had a reincarnation reading about who you were in some previous existence? 6) Played with a Ouija board, tarot cards, or "Dungeons & Dragons"? 7) Played games of an occult nature using ESP, telepathy, etc.? 8) Consulted a medium, acted as a medium, or practiced channeling? 9) Sought psychic healing or had psychic surgery? 10) Practiced table-lifting, lifting bodies, automatic writing or soul travel? 11) Used any kind of charm for protection? 12) Practiced water-witching to find out where to dig a well? 13) Read or possessed books on witchcraft, fortune-telling, ESP, psycho phenomena or possession? Had anything in your home that was given to you by someone in the occult? 14) Been fascinated by demonic topics in movies? Had a fascination with the occult? 15) Accepted the writing of Edgar Cayce or any other New Age author? 16) Practiced mind control over anyone, cast a magic spell or sought a psychic experience? Contacted a psychic in person or through a psychic hotline? 17) Made a pact with Satan or been involved in Satan worship? 18) Attended witchcraft or voodoo ceremonies? 19) Known of any relatives or ancestors who have been involved in witchcraft, pagan religions, fortune-telling or who have used magic spells? 20) Visited a shrine or temple of a non-Judeo-Christian religion? 21) Been involved in Freemasonry? Had anyone in your family involved? 22) Embraced the fallacy that we are self-sufficient and do not need God? 23) Used LSD, marijuana, cocaine, or nay "mind-expanding" drugs? 24) Had a problem with alcohol? How about other family members? 25) Exposed yourself to pornography in magazines, TV, or stage show, books, topless bars or X-rated movies? 26) Had a problem with habitual masturbation? 27) Been involved with sexually deviant practices? 28) Been involved with a number of people sexually? 29) Had an abortion or fathered a child who was aborted? 30) Wished yourself dead? 31) Wished somebody else dead? 32) Attempted to take your own life? 33) Attempted to take (or taken) someone else's life? In utilizing such a questionnaire, we must realize that some activities (such as playing the Ouija board) are clearly forbidden, while others may involve extenuating circumstances. You may have a sufficient reason for studying the works of Edgar Cayce (preparing a lecture on the subject, for example, or learning more in order to answer the serious questions of a counselee who has been an Edgar Cayce follower) and not be harmed. Furthermore, it is quite possible to attend a séance, play the Ouija board or engage in some other occult activity and not be affected afterward. After two people play the Ouija board, both need to repent, but one may be bothered afterward by an occult spirit while another is not troubled at all. One or both or neither may need deliverance. Nevertheless, these questions are good to ask, for they may help reveal the reason some people are troubled by evil spirits, and they may bring to our attention areas of our past lives in which we need to repent. Be aware, too, that these are some activities that are not clearly forbidden and about which there are reasonable doubts. Among these are hypnotism and yoga exercises. There are dangers in being hypnotized, when your will is unprotected and you can be exposed to something invading your soul. But some people believe hypnosis can be justified with two precautions. First, you have a sufficient reason for doing it. A person's memory may be blocked to anything earlier than age ten, for instance, and represent a barrier through which hypnosis may break. The second precaution is that the person conducting the session is reputable and protects the client. Putting people into trances as a parlor game is clearly dangerous, for spiritual as well as psychological reasons. Similarly with the practice of yoga exercises we find dispute. Some Christians say it is beneficial to practice such exercises without getting into yoga philosophy. Others say you cannot do it because the exercises are intimately connected with the philosophy underlying them. The bottom line - always seek the leading of the Holy Spirit. Steps to Take Once you discover in the interview what needs healing and what needs deliverance, try to help the person, 1) repent and ask God's forgiveness for any sins he has committed; 2) forgive those who have injured him; 3) renounce any occult activities he may have practiced. There is a difference, as I pointed out earlier, between repenting and renouncing. Repenting means that we acknowledge a sin, confess it as sin, ask God's forgiveness and turn from it. Renouncing adds a deeper dimension. In addition to being sorry for what we have done in the past and resolving to change our life, we repudiate, cast off and take back our previous commitment by making an explicit declaration of abandonment. By renouncing our occult activities, we are taking back what we have previously surrendered to the realm of evil. After finding out (with or without a questionnaire) the areas to pray about in the deliverance session, you may also want to make some suggestions to the person about how best he can pray in the coming days and what he should read in the particular area where he needs the most help. Source: Deliverance from Evil Spirits, by Francis MacNutt, Copyright 1995, Chosen Books. |
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